Coach Bill Nienstedt knows that at least a few times a season, even the best of teams is going to have a game like Emporia High’s girls had against Hayden on Wednesday night: one that’s harder on the eyes than it is on the scoreboard.
The Spartans overcame 5-of-18 shooting in the first half and forced 24 turnovers, grabbing a slew of steals and coming from behind to beat Hayden 40-32 at EHS in the Centennial League opener for both teams.
“Pretty ragged,” Nienstedt said of the first half. “For whatever reason — it’s hard to pinpoint these things — we weren’t really very ready to play. We weren’t focused, we didn’t play with real good effort or intensity. In spite of that, (we) kind of muddled through, and (I) thought that after about (two minutes) in the third quarter, we got after it a little bit better defensively.”
Chances are that any basketball game that involves blood loss is ugly, and this one did. Hayden’s Michelle Sommer, defending EHS center Lexi Hileman as Hileman pulled in a rebound midway through the first quarter, took an elbow to the nose and left a trail of blood from the middle of the lane heading toward the Wildcats’ bench.
Sommer, who was called for a foul on the play, later returned to the game, but it was a good representation of how things were developing on the floor. Hayden frustrated the Spartans early with a 1-2-2 zone that led to some bad passes and kept the Spartans from getting in a rhythm offensively. The Wildcats led 11-5 at the end of the first quarter, but the Spartans closed the gap to 18-15 by the break, with guard Alli Armitage scoring seven in the first half.
“I don’t think we were necessarily ready for it,” Hileman said of the zone. “We worked on zone, we know our zone. It was just a matter of executing (against) them, attacking their zone, attacking the high post, and we didn’t do that very well. Once we started doing that, we got a few better looks, but it still wasn’t very pretty.”
Emporia grabbed the lead early in the second half and took command of the game. Armitage grabbed a steal, drove to the basket and missed, but Lindy Arndt was there for a stickback to cut the deficit to one. Then Ashley Leihsing rebounded a missed 3-pointer by Armitage and scored to give the Spartans a 19-18 lead.
A basket inside by Hileman off a pass from Janae Scheve, followed by a free-throw line jumper by Arndt, pushed the Spartans’ advantage to 23-19, and they continued to build the lead. Hileman made two free throws with 6:41 left in the game to make it 31-22, then scored a layin off an Armitage pass to push the lead to double digits for the first time.
Nienstedt said Leihsing’s defensive intensity off the bench in the second half made a big difference in how the game played out.
“We talked with her last night that we think she should be one of the best defenders in our league,” Nienstedt said. “And I thought she had her best half... that’s the kind of player she needs to be, is get out, guard the heck out of you, run the floor, get some layups in transition. She can give that to us, and she did in the second half tonight.”
Hileman finished with a team-high 11 points despite just a 3-of-9 performance at the foul line, and Armitage and Arndt each finished with 10. Aubrey Luebbe led Hayden with 11 points, and Sommer had nine.
“You know you’re going to (have a few ugly games),” Nienstedt said. “You just hope that when you do have ’em that you’re able to fight through and make enough plays that you can win the ball game. And fortunately, we were able to do that against a Hayden team that, really, is not a bad basketball team.”
The Lady Spartans travel to Gardner-Edgerton on Friday night for a 6 p.m. game.
Emporia High girls 40, Hayden 32
Hayden 11 7 4 10 — 32
Emporia 5 10 12 13 — 40
Hayden (1-1) — Trobough 0-1 0-0 0, Lawlor 0-1 2-2 2, Luebbe 4-8 1-1 11, Tenpenny 1-5 3-4 5, Sommer 4-6 0-0 9, Reid 2-5 1-2 5, Cox 0-0 0-0 0, Parker 0-0 0-0 0, McVay 0-0 0-0 0, Cox 0-0 0-0 0, Valdivia 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 11-26 7-9 32.
Emporia (3-0) — VanGundy 0-4 1-2 1, Armitage 2-10 4-6 10, Arndt 4-7 2-4 10, Heinrichs 0-3 0-1 0, Hileman 4-7 3-9 11, Waldner 1-1 0-0 2, Leihsing 2-4 0-0 4, Scheve 0-0 0-0 0, Miller 1-2 0-0 2, Kolmer 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-38 10-22 40.
3-point goals — Hayden 3-10 (Luebbe 2-6, Sommer 1-2, Trobough 0-1, Reid 0-1), Emporia 2-10 (Armitage 2-7, VanGundy 0-3). Total fouls — Hayden 17, Emporia 14. Fouled out — None.