EHS girls struggle early, never recover at Gardner
By The Emporia Gazette (Contact)
Saturday, December 13, 2008
The Emporia High girls had a bad start on Friday at Gardner-Edgerton and could never recover in a 41-29 loss.
The Spartans came into the game 3-0, but they struggled offensively on Wednesday in a 40-32 win against Hayden and the struggles continued on Friday.
The Spartans shot 11-for-39 from the field, while Gardner-Edgerton shot 50 percent and made six 3-pointers.
“We knew Gardner was going to be good,” EHS coach Bill Nienstedt said. “We didn’t know they were going to shoot it as well as they did from 3-point range. They knock in six 3-pointers against us while we’re playing man-to-man and that really shouldn’t happen.”
Emporia did not have one player score in double figures with Amber Miller’s six points leading the way.
Gardner-Edgerton opened the game on a 10-0 run, and Miller’s runner was the only basket for the Spartans in the first quarter, which ended with EHS trailing 14-2.
“We didn’t shoot it well real early in the quarter and then we had some turnvoer issues later in the quarter,” Nienstedt said. “We didn’t defend well out on the perimeter, didn’t help well in the post. All the things combined not good for the old visitors from Emporia.”
It could only get better for the Spartans after the first quarter, but, really, it didn’t get much better. The Spartans continued to struggle shooting the ball in the second quarter and trailed 25-7 at half.
“We just talked (at halftime) a little bit about the fact that we had to focus one possession at a time and if you string together some trips where trips where you focus and do your job, we’ll get some stops and get some open shots,” Nienstedt said. “And we did a better job of that in the second half —not a great job.”
The Spartans cut the lead to 11 at one point and had a shot to cut the lead to single digits, but as most the night, the Spartans missed.
“After that bad first quarter, it was too big of a hole to climb out of,” Nienstedt said. “... We never scared them.”
Emporia will have a week to fix its offense before hosting Topeka High next Friday in the final game before Christmas.
“We’ve just got to get back in the gym Monday and give back to practice and try to get better,” Nienstedt said. “It’s just one basketball game and obviously we didn’t play well at all. We’re not going to jump off a cliff or push anybody off a cliff; we’re going to go to work and try to get better and hopefully put together a solid performance Friday against Topeka High.”
Friday at Gardner-Edgerton
Emporia 2 5 11 11 — 29
Gardner-Edgerton 14 11 11 5 — 41
Emporia (3-1) — VanGundy 5, Armitage 4, Leihsing 2, Miller 6, Kolmer 4, Hileman 4, Longbind 4.
Gardner-Edgerton (3-1) — Boden 3, Brown 2, Devlin 5, Bilitimer 5, George 4, Buckels 6, Schaefer 2, Stockton 2, Washington 12.
Totals fouls — Emporia 15, Gardner-Edgerton 18.