The Emporia High girls basketball team knows it won’t have a size advantage over most opponents, so when the Lady Spartans do, they know they need to take advantage of it.
Emporia High opened its season Thursday night with an 82-41 stomping of Olathe North on the first day of the Paul Terry Classic at White Auditorium, and the Lady Spartans did it by simply abusing the smaller Lady Eagles in the post.
“We found what we needed to find. By that, I mean we got the ball into the post,” junior forward Lexi Hileman said. “We realized that their posts were not that big, and our posts, well, we’re bigger.”
Hileman was the main beneficiary of the size advantage, as she opened the season with 18 points and 11 rebounds, including eight offensive rebounds that led to several offensive stick-backs.
“Right now, I’m ecstatic,” Hileman said. “Eighteen points and [11] rebounds is a good night for me, and I hope to have many more of these nights.
“I would have liked to have gotten more defensive rebounds too, but offensive rebounds are just fine with me.”
Hileman’s dominating performance was nearly matched by senior forward Sadie Webb, who scored 17 points, grabbed three rebounds and dished out two assists. Olathe North simply had no answer for the Lady Spartans’ inside game.
“We try to look for each other whenever we get the ball to do a post-to-post pass,” Webb said of her and Hileman’s night. “We both love to post up.”
The victory pleased EHS coach Bill Nienstedt, as the Lady Spartans’ 82 points were more than EHS scored in a game all of last season, and the EHS bench contributed 28 points to Olathe North’s 6.
“We saw that we can play pretty well together offensively and share the ball, and we saw that we have a bunch of kids who can make baskets.” Nienstedt said. “I thought we did a great job of finding their defensive deficiencies and exploiting them without being coached to do it.”
Emporia wasted little time taking control of the game, as two Webb free throws and a layup sparked a 14-3 EHS run that turned an 8-6 lead into a 22-9 edge for the Lady Spartans at the end of the first quarter. The two teams played to a stalemate in the second quarter, as both teams scored 11 points to head into the locker room with EHS leading, 33-20.
“I think we were all pretty nervous at first,” Webb said, “but once we settled in after the first few minutes, we found a rhythm and we went with it.”
Emporia came out sluggish to begin the third quarter, spurring Nienstedt to call a quick timeout one minute into the half to refocus his team.
“We weren’t very good in the first couple of minutes of the third quarter,” Nienstedt said. “We took a timeout and got some things straightened out.”
After that, it was all EHS.
Hileman produced a three-point play out of the timeout after she grabbed the rebound off her own miss, made the layup and connected on the free throw after North’s Kelly Voigts fouled. That made it 36-22, and the rout was on.
Emporia outscored North, 20-8, in the third quarter, with Hileman scoring 7 points and grabbing 3 rebounds in the period.
“She was really, really active on both ends,” Nienstedt said of Hileman’s game.
By the fourth period, Nienstedt had emptied his bench, and the reserves continued to build on Emporia’s lead, outscoring North 29-13 in the final frame. Senior Brittany Meza and junior Ashley Leihsing came off the bench to lead the reserves with 9 and 8 points, respectively.
“We got all the jitters out,” Hileman said. “I think Saturday, we’re going to come really ready to play.”
The Lady Spartans will take on Olathe East at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday in the final round of the tournament. East lost to Olathe South, 65-56, in the early game on Thursday.
Emporia girls 82, Olathe North 41
Thursday at White Auditorium
Olathe North 9 11 8 13 — 41
Emporia 22 11 20 29 — 82
Olathe North (0-1) — Miller 7-10 0-0 16, Wolfe 2-4 2-4 6, Anderson 3-3 1-2 7, Downing 0-3 5-6 5, Voigts 0-0 1-2 1, Galley 0-3 0-0 0, Brenneman 0-1 0-0 0, Morphew 0-4 0-0 0, Wiesner 0-2 0-0 0, Walker 1-3 0-2 2, Ellis 1-2 2-4 4, O’Connor 0-0 0-2 0. Totals 14-35 11-22 41.
Emporia (1-0) — Armitage 2-4 0-0 5, Webb 5-8 7-13 17, Arndt 1-4 1-1 3, Naab 5-10 0-0 11, Hileman 8-12 2-3 18, Meza 3-5 0-0 9, VanGundy 1-3 4-4 6, Perez 0-0 0-0 0, Scheve 0-1 0-0 0, Leihsing 4-7 0-0 8, Heinrichs 2-3 1-1 5, Dorsey 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-57 15-22 82.
3-point goals — Olathe North 2-7 (Miller 2-3, Wolfe 0-1, Galley 0-1, Wiesner 0-2); Emporia 5-11 (Armitage 1-1, Arndt 0-2, Naab 1-3, Meza 3-4, VanGundy 0-1). Rebounds — Olathe North 24 (Wolfe, Anderson 4); Emporia 32 (Hileman 11). Assists — Olathe North 6 (Wolfe 3); Emporia 19 (Naab 4). Turnovers — Olathe North 28; Emporia 14. Total fouls — Olathe North 18, Emporia 18.