TOPEKA — During the first quarter of Tuesday night’s game, the Hayden girls ripped through Emporia High’s zone defense to the tune of a 9-for-9 shooting performance.
Too bad the Lady Spartans weren’t actually playing zone.
“It looked like for big stretches, it looked like we were playing zone we were so soft,” coach Bill Nienstedt said. “If I’m five feet away from you, you’re going to make shots, especially if you’re 10 or 12 feet away from the basket.”
The Lady Wildcats ended up going 10-for-10 from the field to start the game and went 14-of-19 (74 percent) in the first half on their way to a 63-46 victory over Emporia. In its perfect first quarter, Hayden saw five players score on a variety of shots from all over the court to grab a 19-13 lead after one period.
“They just made shots and we couldn’t stop them,” sophomore Alli Armitage said. “Everything they threw up went in and nothing went in for us. We just weren’t defending real well.”
For all its defensive problems, Emporia (7-5, 1-4 Centennial League) still only found itself down by 10 points at halftime, 32-22, thanks to the efforts of senior Jessica Muckenthaler. The guard scored 11 of her game-high 19 points in the first half to keep Emporia within striking distance.
However, that was the furthest thing from Nienstedt’s mind heading into the break.
“I’m sure she had a nice game on the offensive end of the floor,” Nienstedt said, “but I was more concerned about fixing our problems on defense.”
Hayden began the second half much like the first, hitting its first four shots out of the locker room to build its lead to 18 points just 2 minutes into the third period, which forced two quick Emporia timeouts.
“We had to use two timeouts in the third quarter just to challenge them to get up close enough to touch them,” Nienstedt said. “We just finally had to get on them and get on them and get on them.”
The Lady Spartans stormed out of the second timeout to go on a 14-0 run, led by six points from Muckenthaler. That closed the deficit to four points at 40-36 with 50 seconds left in the third.
“We started to play defense and we got up in their face,” Muckenthaler said. “We were defending well, and started passing and sharing the ball well on offense.”
The scoring went back and forth into the final quarter, but Emporia could not get any closer than four points once more, as Hayden (8-3, 5-1) outscored Emporia 18-5 over the game’s final 6 1/2 minutes.
“Once we started to play hard, once we started to get up into people, we were able to create turnovers and we got ourselves back into the game,” Nienstedt said. “But we dug ourselves such a deep hole that as soon as we lost the momentum a little bit, it just started to landslide.”
Aubree Luebbe paced Hayden with 19 points, while Jordyn Montgomery scored 13 and Corrinne Stringer added 10 points in addition to grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds.
Centennial League
Tuesday at Hayden
Emporia 13 9 15 9 — 46
Hayden 19 13 10 21 — 63
EMPORIA (7-4, 1-4 Centennial League)
J. Muckenthaler 9-16 0-1 19, A. Armitage 1-8 1-2 3, R. Bachman 2-7 2-2 6, S. Webb 2-7 3-8 7, N. Naab 2-6 1-2 5, L. Hileman 0-2 0-0 0, L. Arndt 2-8 2-2 6. Totals 18-54 9-17 46.
HAYDEN (8-3, 5-1)
E. Thompson 1-1 2-2 4, A. Luebbe 7-13 4-4 19, A. Dodds 3-9 2-4 8, J. Montgomery 6-8 0-1 13, C. Stringer 4-4 2-4 10, L Biggs 2-4 0-0 5, M. Sommer 1-4 0-0 2, C. Ball 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 25-44 10-15 63.
3-point goals — Emporia 1-7 (Muckethaler 1-2, Armitage 0-3, Bachman 0-1, Arndt 0-1), Hayden 3-8 (Luebbe 1-2, Dodds 0-3, Montgomery 1-1, Biggs 1-1, Sommer 0-1). Rebounds — Emporia 27 (Muckenthaler 7), Hayden 32 (Stringer 13). Assists — Emporia 4 (Bachman 2), Hayden 8 (Montgomery 3). Turnovers — Emporia 14, Hayden 16. Total fouls — Emporia 15, Hayden 14. Fouled out — None.