EHS girls helped by time off
By Michael Ashford
Originally published 02:31 p.m., February 7, 2008
Updated 02:31 p.m., February 7, 2008
Though Bill Nienstedt believes his Emporia High girls basketball team would have been fine to play Topeka High on Tuesday had the game not been postponed because of the weather, he can’t argue that the extended break won’t be a good thing for the Lady Spartans.
“I think we’d have been ready to play Tuesday,” Nienstedt said, “but when we found out we weren’t going to play Tuesday, we had a really good practice that day.”
The fourth-ranked Lady Spartans (11-3, 4-3 Centennial League) enter Friday’s night’s home matchup against Seaman looking to correct the things that went wrong in last Friday’s 55-50 loss at Shawnee Heights. After that game, Nienstedt said his team was not physical enough against the Lady Thunderbirds, adding that a lack of concentration also contributed to EHS being held winless on the road this season.
“We worked really hard in practice to clean up some fundamental things that we weren’t doing really well — little things that we weren’t doing in screening and jumping the ball defensively — and I thought the kids responded well,” he said. “It’s just focusing and concentrating and doing the little things right that we know how to do but haven’t had the discipline to do the right way.”
Emporia returns home — where it has not lost this season — to face a Seaman team struggling to cope with the graduation of Breanna Lewis and Aubree Gustin, two of the more physically imposing players in the Centennial League a year ago.
Gustin, the league’s player of the year, and Lewis, the defensive player of the year, gave Emporia fits with their physicality and sheer size a year ago when the two teams met in Topeka — a 50-45 Seaman victory. This year without Gustin and Lewis, the Lady Vikings have limped to a 4-11 record overall and are just 1-7 in Centennial League play.
But despite the unassuming record, Nienstedt and the Lady Spartans know they’ll have their hands full against the Lady Vikings.
“Everybody in our league plays physical,” Nienstedt said. “It’s very, very much a contact sport anymore, and you have to be ready to respond to that, and you have to be ready to set the tone physically against anybody that you play against anymore.”
The time away from competition also could bring good news of a different sort for EHS, as senior forward Sadie Webb now is expected to play against Seaman after suffering a concussion against Shawnee Heights.
“She’s looked a little bit better each day,” Nienstedt said. “I think she’ll be fine. I think she’ll be good to go (Friday), unless she has a setback of some sort.”
As for the EHS boys, they’ll look to start another winning streak after reeling off five straight victories before losing Friday to Heights, 60-59.
Emporia High (9-5, 4-3) and Seaman, which enters the game at 8-7 overall and 3-5 in the league, both hold aspirations of closing the gap between themselves and the league’s top three teams.
Hayden, Highland Park and Manhattan all sit a 6-1 in league play.
Topeka High games moved to Feb. 16
Emporia High’s games against Topeka High that were postponed Tuesday because of the winter weather have been moved to Saturday, Feb. 16, in Topeka.
The girls game will be at 4:30 p.m. followed by the boys game at 6 p.m.