Spartans lose close one to Leavenworth
Spartans lose close one to Leavenworth
By Joey Berlin
Saturday, December 6, 2008
LEAVENWORTH — When Taylor Euler chased after a loose ball, smacked into the scorer’s table, knocked over the possession-arrow console and sent a water bottle flying, he provided a good indicator of the effort he and his Emporia High teammates were having to expend.
The Spartans were needing every ounce of energy they could muster to give themselves a chance to open their season with an upset road win at Leavenworth, and every ounce was what they were giving. In the fourth quarter, though, Euler began to run out of gas, and with that, the Spartans ran out of answers.
Leavenworth erased a six-point Emporia fourth-quarter lead with a 15-2 run, withstanding a breathtaking third-quarter scoring performance by Euler and hanging on to win 48-44. But Emporia coach Rick Bloomquist left the game encouraged by a gritty performance by the Spartans that took the bigger, more athletic Pioneers — the fifth-ranked team in Class 6A — all the way to the final minute.
“I’m not gonna walk out of this gym wondering what my team’s gonna be like,” Bloomquist said. “I know what my team’s gonna be like, and I was very pleased with what I saw tonight.”
In the third quarter, Euler answered any potential wonders about whether he could fill the scoring void left behind by his former backcourt mate, Caydrick Bloomquist. Euler ripped off 14 third-quarter points, including a personal 12-0 run, and finished with 25 for the game on 11-of-25 shooting.
With the Spartans trailing 23-17 early in the third quarter, Euler got started with a 3-pointer, then added a runner from the right side to pull EHS within one. At the other end, he knocked a loose ball toward midcourt, caught up with it and raced for a layup to give Emporia a 24-23 lead. Then he added a 15-footer and a guarded 3-pointer from the left side to give the Spartans a 29-23 edge. Leavenworth closed to within 29-28, but Euler hit another jumper just before the end of the third quarter to push Emporia’s lead back to three.
He scored on a drive and another 3-pointer in the first minute of the third to give the Spartans a 36-30 edge — and Euler 19 straight Spartan points.
“Yeah, I got in a zone, but it’s not just me doing it,” Euler said. “The things that the fans don’t see — you’ve got great screens by the players, you got movement, because if our team’s just standing around, they’re just gonna focus on me. So we had good ball movement, player movement, good screens, and I was just able to get open and hit some shots.”
Then, Leavenworth got on track.
First, Warren Brown pulled the rare feat of banking in back-to-back free throws. Then Darian Hill hit a jumper from the left side to pull Leavenworth within two. At the other end, Euler missed on a runner, the Pioneers got an easy fast-break opportunity, and Brown’s layin tied the score at 36-36 with 6:04 remaining. Bloomquist called timeout, but the momentum was firmly on Leavenworth’s side.
A fallaway shot by Hill and a close-range basket by J.E.B. Greenberg gave the Pioneers a four-point lead. Emporia answered when Brandon Gentz found Greg Canales underneath for a layup to draw back within 40-38, but Nino Williams hit a wide-open three from the left corner, and a Jacob Golden miss led to another Leavenworth runout, ending with a layin by Greenberg. It was 45-38 Pioneers, just 2:32 remained, and Bloomquist called another timeout for what appeared to be a tired Spartan team.
“I think that’s just the first game of the year — nobody’s really in that kind of shape, to play a full game like that,” Euler said. “And with all the emotions in the game, it kind of sucks you out, the adrenaline. It takes you a little bit longer to get your second wind.”
Golden helped the Spartans make the last minute interesting, hitting a layup underneath off a nice perimeter pass from Jacob Torres with 1:01 left, then making two free throws with 42.2 seconds remaining to cut the lead to 45-42. But Leavenworth then broke the Spartans’ full-court press and got a layup from Greenberg at the other end.
With the score 48-44 and 4.7 seconds left, Euler let the inbounds pass bounce downcourt, then succeeded in drawing contact on a 3-point attempt, but nothing was called and his shot missed.
Bloomquist was happy that the Spartans, thanks in large part to a zone defense that made up for Leavenworth’s size and athletic advantages, held the powerful Pioneers to just 48 points.
“The things that I was worried about the most never happened,” Bloomquist said. “I thought we rebounded OK with this team, because they were much more athletic than we were. They were much more physical than we were, and I thought we battled them, no question about that.
“I think basically the difference in the game was their athleticism. I thought we played better basketball than we did, but I thought they were better athletes than we were.”
Torres had nine points for the Spartans, but had a rough shooting night, hitting on just 1-of-7 3-point attempts. Canales led Emporia with four rebounds. Williams had 12 points for Leavenworth, and Greenberg had 11.
Euler had a similar view to Bloomquist of Friday’s game — he can handle a four-point loss on the road against a team like the Pioneers.
“I mean, that fourth quarter hit us a little bit,” Euler said. “But I think for a whole first game coming out against a team like this, I thought we had a great game.”
Leavenworth boys 48, Emporia 44
Emporia (0-1) 8 7 16 13 — 44
Leavenworth (1-0) 8 11 9 20 — 48
Emporia (0-1) — Taylor Euler 11 0-0 25, Jacob Golden 1 2-2 4, Marcus Jamison 1 0-0 2, Jacob Torres 3 2-2 9, Greg Canales 2 0-2 4, Bryce Childs 0 0-0 0, Brandon Gentz 0 0-0 0, Darnell Bartlett 0 0-0 0, Isiah Essex 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 4-6 44.
Leavenworth (1-0) — Alec Zeck 0 0-2 0, Bruce Adams 3 0-0 6, Nino Williams 5 1-2 12, J.E.B. Greenberg 5 0-0 11, Darian Hill 3 0-0 6, Marcus Johnson 1 0-0 3, Manny Baez 3 0-0 6, Warren Brown 1 2-2 4. Totals 21 3-6 48.
3-point goals — Emporia 4-19 (Euler 3-8, Torres 1-7, Gentz 0-2, Bartlett 0-1, Golden 0-1), Leavenworth 3-13 (Williams 1-5, Greenberg 1-3, Johnson 1-1, Zeck 0-3, Hill 0-1). Rebounds — Emporia 14 (Canales 4). Total fouls — Emporia 9, Leavenworth 11. Fouled out — None.