Four games into a high school season are often not enough to be making any final judgments about what a basketball team is, or what it could be.
But four games are enough of a glimpse into what you’ve got to have an idea of a team’s strengths and weaknesses, and to have an idea of what the season could bring. Especially when those four games have included competition as good as that faced by Emporia High’s boys and girls basketball teams this year.
So, as each Spartan team prepares for the teeth of league play — Friday’s doubleheader with Topeka High brings the second Centennial League game for the girls, the first for the boys — what do we know about each team after four games?
Let’s start with the 2-2 EHS boys. First, Taylor Euler is likely to have one of the great seasons in Spartan basketball history. Thus far, he’s averaging 21.5 points per game, with three games of 25 points or more. Euler’s done it all — shooting, driving and defense — and has looked every bit like an All-State guard, with a clutch 3-pointer to beat Bellevue East thrown in for good measure.
With Jacob Torres emerging as a dangerous scorer and coach Rick Bloomquist looking for more balance, Euler may not maintain that 21.5 average for the entire season. But if he does, and the Spartans reach a 23rd game (the substate final), that would give him 494 points for the season, the second-best scoring year on EHS’s all-time list behind Wes Book’s 557 points in 2003-04. Euler has a chance to become the only Spartan besides Book to score 500 points in a season. On the career list, Euler ranks 10th in points; he could climb as high as fourth by season’s end.
Torres, after a bit of a slow start in Emporia’s first two games, came on strong in the last two games of the Paul Terry Classic, putting up 21 points against Bellevue East and 23 against Olathe East. When defenses focus on Euler, as Olathe East did, Torres can step up and knock down shots both from outside the arc and from midrange. He can score in the open floor, too.
Defense hasn’t been much of an issue thus far, as Emporia has held every opponent — including three very good ones — to 52 points or less. When EHS faces teams that are bigger or more athletic, such as Olathe East, they’ve used straight zone defenses or a box-and-one to good effect.
The three big questions the Spartans face: 1) Can they get enough scoring from other sources besides Euler and Torres, 2) Can they rebound?, and 3) Do they have enough depth?
The answers to questions one and two probably start with junior center Greg Canales. The 6-foot-6 Canales is just now getting back to full health following preseason knee problems, and he adds size and touch inside. He had a huge game against undersized Word of Life — 24 points, eight rebounds — but the Spartans need a little more from him than the 16 points he put up in the other three games combined. Emporia has been out-boarded in every game thus far except the 91-44 win over Word of Life, but if Canales can become a true force inside, that could change the Spartans’ outlook dramatically.
The third question — depth — will primarily come down to how Brandon Gentz, Bryce Childs and Isiah Essex perform in their roles off the bench. Collectively, they’re a good group of athletes and are capable of spelling the starters effectively. Thus far though, in the three games besides the everybody-gets-in blowout of Word of Life, the Spartans have gotten a total of one point from their bench. So the development of their bench players will be something to keep an eye on.
The Lady Spartans, ranked No. 9 in Class 5A in this week’s Kansas Basketball Coaches Association rankings, have looked every bit as good as that ranking. Emporia has the balance that coach Bill Nienstedt is looking for, with Lexi Hileman and Hilary Heinrichs inside, Alli Armitage and Rachelle VanGundy outside and Lindy Arndt everywhere doing everything. Heinrichs hasn’t scored since the season opener but is doing the dirty work inside (rebounding, defense and taking charges), and VanGundy gives the Spartans another outside-shooting threat besides Armitage.
Emporia has had three different leading scorers in four games; Armitage and Hileman are both averaging 9.3 points per game, and Arndt is averaging eight points. Defensively, with Armitage and 2007-08 Centennial League All-Defense selection Arndt leading the way, the Spartans have already proved they can force turnovers and play suffocating D against some of the state’s best.
Depth has been there, too, with Courtney Waldner adding size inside, Ashley Leihsing adding defense and Amber Miller grabbing some boards off the bench. The 3-1 Spartans already have two big wins over outstanding teams: a 52-45 win over Olathe South in the Paul Terry Classic and a 40-32 win over Hayden last week in Emporia’s home opener. Olathe South is currently ranked No. 4 in Class 6A; Hayden fell out of the Class 4A rankings this week but was previously ranked No. 7.
The Lady Spartans play smart, team-oriented basketball, and really, they don’t have an obvious weakness. The only thing resembling a big issue with them may be that their offense isn’t guaranteed to click every night. They slogged past a first-half deficit to beat Hayden after having some trouble with the Wildcats’ zone, then fell behind 14-2 and never recovered during last Friday’s trip at Gardner-Edgerton, losing 41-29 to the Trailblazers, who are now ranked seventh in 5A. But all in all, last year’s success — an 18-5 record and a trip to the state tournament — is more than attainable.
Neither Topeka High team is off to a strong start — the THS boys are 0-3, the girls 0-2, although the boys lost a close one against now-ranked Shawnee Mission South — so Friday’s games, the last before holiday break, may not pose much of a challenge for Emporia’s two squads. But hope for more postseason play is justified with both Spartan basketball teams, and both are going to be fun to watch as the year unfolds.