Emporia High boys basketball coach Rick Bloomquist may have to needle his team — or more to the point, noodle his team — about its toughness this week.
Following the Spartans’ 52-48 loss to Olathe East at White Auditorium in Saturday’s championship game of the Paul Terry Classic, Bloomquist felt as if Emporia had just been out-toughed. That may result in practices containing more of the noodle drill, in which Bloomquist stands under the basket with Styrofoam noodles — the kind kids play with at swimming pools — and smacks his players as they go up for shots and fight for rebounds.
“I don’t know if the noodle drill is gonna help us — they may get tired of those noodles,” he said. “But I might noodle ’em to death right now. It’s just a toughness thing.”
In a game that somewhat resembled the season-opening loss at Leavenworth, the Spartans faced disadvantages to Olathe East in size and athletic ability and were out-boarded 32-22. They were in it until the final minute, but got little scoring from anyone other than Jacob Torres, who finished with 23 points, and for the fourth straight year came up short of the Terry Classic championship.
“They were getting the loose balls, they were getting the hustle plays, they were getting the extra tips on the rebound,” Bloomquist said.
Olathe East also had balance and talent — enough that Emporia spent most of the game in a 3-2 zone defense and some of it in a box-and-one, with Jacob Golden shadowing East’s hot-shooting point guard, Danny Mundweiler.
East led 22-20 at halftime — when Torres had 15 of the Spartans’ points, including three 3-pointers — and the Hawks still led by two at the end of three quarters. Jordan Banks tore off seven straight points by himself with a jumper, two free throws and a 3-pointer to give the Hawks a 39-30 lead early in the fourth quarter, and it looked as though the Hawks might be pulling away. But EHS wasn’t done yet.
Taylor Euler, who had gone scoreless in the first half, buried a three to cut the lead to six, and a banked-in three by Greg Canales and a Torres rebound and coast-to-coast drive for a layup brought the Spartans (2-2) to within 41-38.
Another Euler three with just under two minutes to go cut the lead to 44-42. Two free throws by Mundweiler pushed Olathe East’s lead back to four, but at the other end, Euler was trapped on a ball screen at the top of the key and found Torres open in the right corner. Torres was fouled on a 3-point shot — for the second time in the game — with just 1:13 left. He stepped to the line and, just as he’d done at the end of the third quarter, made all three charities to bring Emporia to within 46-45.
But Olathe East then broke the Spartans’ full-court press, and Bruce Reed found Banks wide open under the basket. Canales made contact on Banks as he tossed in a layup, putting Banks on the line and sending Canales to the bench with his fifth foul. Banks hit the free throw to recreate the Hawks’ four-point lead at 49-45.
With 26.7 seconds remaining, Tyler Kalinoski hit the second of two free throws to give East a 50-47 lead. Euler drove and pulled up from inside the arc and missed, but his shot went out of bounds off the Hawks with 13.1 seconds left. Reed fouled Bryce Childs away from the ball with 8.1 seconds remaining, but Childs missed the first free throw before making the second. EHS fouled Mundweiler with 3.8 seconds left, and he made both free throws at the other end to cinch the game.
Euler, who scored 25, 25 and 26 points in EHS’s first three games, was held to 10, all in the second half, and had five assists. Canales also finished with 10. Torres finished 7-for-14 from the floor and a perfect 6-for-6 from the foul line.
“I came out and looked for my shot when I had it,” Torres said. “And I started hitting, so I kept going. They were all over Taylor, too.”
Banks led East with 23 points, making 8-of-9 shots and all three of his 3-point tries. Mundweiler had 18, including four threes.
Bloomquist believes the problems the Spartans had on Saturday are fixable, but he wants his team to show consistent toughness.
“We missed some assignments defensively — we were pressing,” he said. “And we can’t do it. We can’t try to be heroes on defense. We have to stay within the concept of what we’re doing, and that’s part of mental toughness.
“I don’t know if we were as mentally tough or physically as tough on a scale that I want to be. We were periodically, but we weren’t persistently tough. They were persistently tougher than we were.”
In the rest of Saturday’s Terry Classic games, Blue Valley West beat Bellevue East 64-51 in the third place game, Junction City defeated Webb City 59-45 in the consolation-bracket championship, and Word of Life beat Skutt Catholic 46-44 in the seventh-place game.
Euler and Torres were both named to the all-tournament team for the Spartans.
Olathe East 52, Emporia 48
Olathe East 15 7 10 20 — 52
Emporia 12 8 10 18 — 48
Olathe East — Mundweiler 4-12 6-6 18, Kalinoski 0-2 1-2 1, Banks 8-9 4-6 23, Reed 4-8 2-3 10, Starling 0-0 0-0 0, Schippers 0-5 0-0 0, Nemec 0-0 0-0 0, Gafford 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 16-40 13-17 52.
Emporia — Euler 3-10 2-2 10, Golden 0-1 0-0 0, Jamison 1-2 0-0 2, Torres 7-14 6-6 23, Canales 3-6 3-3 10, Gentz 0-6 1-2 1, Essex 0-0 0-0 0, Childs 0-1 2-4 2. Totals 14-40 14-17 48.
3-point goals — Olathe East 7-16 (Mundweiler 4-8, Banks 3-3, Reed 0-2, Schippers 0-2, Kalinoski 0-1), Emporia 6-14 (Torres 3-6, Euler 2-5, Canales 1-1, Gentz 0-2). Fouled out — Canales. Rebounds — Olathe East 32 (Reed 11), Emporia 22 (Team 6, Canales 5). Assists — Olathe East 9 (Mundweiler 3), Emporia 7 (Euler 5). Total fouls — Olathe East 14, Emporia 17.