Lady Spartans come up short in bid for State tournament
Foul shot with 1.6 seconds left gives Kapaun 1-point win
By Michael Ashford
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Photo by Carly Pearson
Emporia High's Lindy Arndt wipes away tears with her jersey Friday night at Emporia High School. The Lady Spartans lost 65-64 to Kapaun Mt. Carmel marking the end of their season.
The whistle blew, and almost immediately, Emporia High’s Rachael Bachman held out her arms and stared in disbelief, trying to plead her case with the official that had just called a foul on her.
With Friday night’s Sub-State championship game tied with less than 5 seconds remaining, Bachman and Kapaun Mt. Carmel’s Whitney Weixelman had both gone up for a rebound off a missed 3-pointer by Kapaun’s Megan Cook. Weixelman, who had about three inches on Bachman, grabbed the rebound, and Bachman got called for a reaching foul with just 1.6 seconds left.
“She got the ball and my arm just got caught in hers,” Bachman said. “They blew the whistle, and it sucked, but that’s what happens.”
The foul sent Weixelman to the line for two free throws. She made the first to put Kapaun ahead by one, but the second bounced high off the rim and into Bachman’s arms. Bachman dribbled a couple times and heaved a shot that fell well short of the goal, giving Kapaun the 65-64 victory.
“That’s a tough situation, but he (the referee) was right there. He’s not going to cheat us, I know that,” EHS coach Bill Nienstedt said. “It’s a tough break, but that’s the way things go.”
The loss ended the Lady Spartans’ season one victory short of the State Tournament. That the EHS girls were even within reach at the end of Friday’s game was impressive, considering that the fifth-seeded Lady Spartans had to first overcome a 15-point deficit to defeat No. 4-seeded Bishop Carroll on Thursday before battling back from a late seven-point hole Friday against No. 1-seeded Kapaun.
“You have to be tough to be able to battle back from those types of situations,” Nienstedt said, “and that’s a roomful of tough kids.”
A 3-pointer by the Crusaders’ Abby Taylor — Kapaun’s only three-point goal of the game — put Kapaun ahead, 44-37, with 2 minutes left in the third quarter, which forced Emporia to call a timeout.
“Coach (Nienstedt) called timeout, and he encouraged us a lot and said it wasn’t over,” Bachman said. “Before the game, he told us that this game was going to have a lot of runs on both sides, and he called us over and said, ‘They just had their run, now we need ours.’”
Over the game’s next 6 1/2 minutes, Emporia (14-8) slowly whittled away at Kapaun’s lead thanks in large part to eight points from Jessica Muckenthaler and six points Sadie Webb. The comeback was completed when Webb — who finished with a career-high 26 points — hit a fast-break layup and got fouled, hitting the free throw to tie the game at 54 with 3 1/2 minutes left.
“We knew we wanted to attack. We hustled down the court and looked for good position and looked to post up when we could,” Webb said. “We were finding it in the post.”
Both teams traded baskets back and forth over the next few minutes to make it 62-62, with all eight of Kapaun’s points coming from Darice Fountaine on a variety of drives and interior post-ups in the lane. Fountaine finished with 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting and three free throws, including a 6-for-6 performance from the floor in the second half.
Combined with Weixelman’s 16 points, Kapaun’s inside duo finished with 35 of the Crusader’s 65 points (54 percent).
Photo by Carly Pearson
Emporia High's Lindy Arndt goes up for a shot against Kapaun's Andrea McMaster Friday night at Emporia High School. Arndt had 13 points in the Lady Spartans 65-64 loss to Kapaun marking the end of their season.
“Coming in, we knew that their whole offense was basically getting it into the post,” Webb said. “We knew we were going to have to defend well down there. We just had spurts where we didn’t help and we’d let them throw it in down low and they’d make a shot or get fouled and go to the line.”
Webb briefly put the Lady Spartans ahead by two when she put back a Lindy Arndt miss with 56 seconds left. However, Kapaun (17-5) answered once again when, after a Chelsey Schumaker miss, Megan Cook nabbed the rebound and dished it off to Ashley Booker, who drained a short jumper to tie it at 64.
“We just didn’t do what we needed to do,” Bachman said.
Muckenthaler missed two free throws at the other end with 32 seconds left, which set up Weixelman’s game-winning free throw.
After a few post-game tears, most of the Emporia players walked out of the locker room with their heads up, proud of what they had accomplished this season.
“In games like this, as a coach, you kind of feel inadequate when the game ends because there’s nothing you can say that makes that pain go away,” Nienstedt said. “I just told them how proud we were of them and that we wouldn’t trade them for anybody. It’s been as enjoyable a season as I’ve ever been involved with.”
Sub-State Championship Game
Friday at Emporia High
Emporia 16 11 14 23 — 64
Kapaun Mt. Car. 13 13 18 21 — 65
EMPORIA (14-8)
J. Muckenthaler 4-5 4-8 12, A. Armitage 1-2 0-0 2, R. Bachman 2-6 0-2 4, S. Webb 8-11 10-13 26, N. Naab 1-8 0-0 2, L. Hileman 1-3 3-4 5, L. Arndt 6-10 0-0 13. Totals 23-45 17-27 64.
KAPAUN MT. CARMEL (17-5)
K. Smith 0-0 2-2 2, W. Weixelman 7-11 2-4 16, A. Booker 2-3 0-0 4, M. Cook 0-4 2-2 2, D. Fountaine 8-9 3-5 19, C. Schumaker 3-5 0-0 6, A. McMaster 3-6 1-2 7, M. Martin 1-1 0-0 2, A. Taylor 3-5 0-1 7. Totals 27-44 10-16 65.
3-point goals — Emporia 1-3 (Armitage 0-1, Bachman 0-1, Arndt 1-1), KMC 1-6 (Cook 0-1, McMaster 0-3, Taylor 1-2). Rebounds — Emporia 17 (Webb 7), KMC 30 (Fountaine 9). Assists — Emporia 9 (Muckenthaler 3), KMC 11 (Weixelman 7). Turnovers — Emporia 13, KMC 20. Total fouls — Emporia 17, KMC 20. Fouled out — None.
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