Emporia State sophomore Cassondra Boston picked a good night to have the best shooting game of her young career.
Boston scored a career-high 34 points and broke the school record for 3-pointers in a game with nine to lead the Lady Hornets to a season-opening 81-63 victory over Cameron on Friday, and she did it with the former three-point record holder, Andi McAlexander, watching from the stands.
Boston was nearly perfect from long range, going 9-for-10 from behind the arc, with her lone miss coming just three minutes into the contest. Her nine makes broke McAlexander’s previous record of eight in one game, set against West Virginia Tech on Nov. 24, 2005.
“I didn’t even realize I made that many, and I thought I missed a couple more than that,” Boston said. “For some reason, my shot was on tonight.”
Boston’s effort helped third-ranked ESU spurn Cameron’s attempt at an upset on the first day of the Candlewood Suites/Mix 104.9 Classic, but not before the Lady Aggies put quite the scare into the Lady Hornets.
The unranked Lady Aggies had ESU on its heels throughout the entire first half, twice leading by 13 points. It took a 10-1 run midway through the second half for Emporia State to finally establish some breathing room, and a foul-troubled Cameron squad could not keep up after that.
“Cameron was really bringing the fight to us — their aggressiveness and their intensity level was very, very good,” ESU coach Brandon Schneider said. “They’re athletic and they’re long, which is a nasty combination. And then I think you accumulate that with our veteran players not being focused and ready to play with the newness and inexperience of our new kids and it being their first game, that can be a recipe for disaster there.”
A jumper by Michelle Stueve gave ESU an 8-7 lead less than four minutes in, and then the Lady Hornets went cold. Over the next 8 1/2 minutes, Emporia State did not make a shot from the field, which allowed Cameron to go on a 18-4 run to make it 25-12.
Emporia State’s only saving grace were several trips to the free-throw line, but even then, the Lady Hornets failed to capitalize. ESU went just 4-for-8 from the line during Cameron’s run, and the Lady Hornets shot just 15-of-26 from the free-throw line in the first half.
“That’s something that we’ve got to fix,” Stueve said. “It’s just concentration. It’s a free shot. We’ve got to make them. We definitely didn’t do that tonight.”
After getting down 27-14, Emporia State began experimenting with defensive looks to try and slow down Cameron’s athleticism.
ESU got Cameron’s lead under 10 points at the 4:06 mark of the first half on a layup by Alli Volkens, which made it 33-24.
Then, on the strength of two threes from Boston and a buzzer-beating trey at the buzzer by Stueve, ESU roared back with a 13-4 run to close out the half, which tied it at 37.
“We had a little spurt there with a few shots, and then that one to tie it up,” Stueve said. “I think it gave us some momentum. Obviously, we felt pretty fortunate to be in the game at that point.”
Emporia State took the lead 4 1/2 minutes into the second half with two Stueve free throws that made it 45-44.
Minutes later, with the game tied at 47, Boston began her assault on the record books.
With her third 3-pointer of the second half and sixth of the game, Boston gave ESU the lead for good at 50-47. She made her seventh, eighth and ninth treys in a two-minutes span in which the Lady Hornets’ lead grew from 60-55 to 71-59, with her final three of the night coming off a kickout pass from Jamie Augustyn after three missed layups down low by Volkens.
“We always look to get the ball inside, and they (Cameron) were coming down and doubling our posts a lot, so they were kicking it out, and that’s where we got our perimeter shots,” Boston said. “Our posts were in there working hard and trying to get shots, but as I said, they kicked it out a lot and got the guards a lot of shots.”
Cameron, meanwhile, fell into serious foul trouble, as five players — including four starters — had at least four fouls midway through the second half. Two starters — Keindra Scott and Megan Atkins — ended up fouling out.
Boston led all scorers with 34 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field and a 7-for-11 performance at the free-throw line. Stueve finished with 23 points, while Volkens had nine.
Two Lady Aggies scored in double figures, as Tiffany Williams had 15 points and Jasmine Parr added 13.
ESU will play again at 7:30 tonight against Texas Women’s University, which fell to No. 17 Missouri Western, 86-82, on Friday.
Emporia State 81, Cameron 63
Cameron 37 26 — 63
No. 3 ESU 37 44 — 81
Cameron (0-1) — Williams, Tiffany 6-12 3-5 15; Parr, Jasmine 5-12 2-6 13; Taylor, Kristi 2-7 5-6 9; Moore, Sarah 3-5 3-6 9; Scott, Keindra 3-10 0-0 7; Atkins, Megan 3-5 0-1 7; Martinuzzi, Merrisa 1-1 0-0 3; White, Latrice 0-0 0-0 0; Taylor, Evelyn 0-2 0-0 0; Dunn, Haley 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-55 13-24 63.
Emporia State (1-0) — Boston, Cassondra 9-13 7-11 34; Stueve, Michelle 6-12 8-12 23; Volkens, Alli 3-10 3-8 9; Renberg, Allie 2-5 2-4 7; Zabel, Becky 2-4 0-1 5; Leiker, Andrea 1-6 1-1 3; Kisner, Bree 0-1 0-0 0; Corker, Lacy 0-0 0-0 0; Augustyn, Jamie 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-51 21-37 81.
3-point goals — Cameron 4-12 (Atkins,Megan 1-2; Scott, Keindra 1-4; Parr, Jasmine 1-2; Martinuzzi, Merrisa 1-1; Taylor, Evelyn 0-1; Taylor, Kristi 0-1; Williams, Tiffany 0-1), Emporia State 14-24 (Boston, Cassondra 9-10; Stueve, Michelle 3-7; Renberg, Allie 1-1; Zabel, Becky 1-1; Leiker, Andrea 0-5). Fouled out — Cameron: Atkins, Megan; Scott, Keindra; Emporia State: Renberg, Allie. Rebounds — Cameron 29 (Atkins, Megan 8), Emporia State 44 (Renberg, Allie 13). Assists — Cameron 13 (Taylor, Kristi 8), Emporia State 18 (Stueve, Michelle 5). Total fouls — Cameron 28, Emporia State 23. Att — 2,034.