A not-so-typical cast of players nearly helped the Emporia High girls basketball team recover from a horrid start against Washburn Rural on Tuesday night.
But in the end, quality efforts from several EHS bench players was not enough to get the Lady Spartans a victory, as the Lady Blues came away with a 68-61 overtime victory at Emporia High School.
“I think it was that our second-unit kids just busted their tails and gave us some positive energy,” EHS coach Bill Nienstedt said. “Unfortunately, those same kids ran out of gas a little bit.”
After EHS trailed by as many as 20 points in the second half, Emporia High reserves Brittany Meza, Hilary Heinrichs and Rachelle VanGundy spent most of the remainder of regulation helping the Lady Spartans fight and scratch their way back into the game. Meza ran the offense at point guard with few mistakes, Heinrichs finished as Emporia’s leading rebounder with seven boards, and VanGundy scored six points and dished out a game-high five assists, with most of the production coming in the second half with starters Sadie Webb, Lexi Hileman and Alli Armitage sitting on the sideline.
The play of the reserves was coupled with a strong performance from sophomore Lindy Arndt, who looked as aggressive as she had all season in scoring 17 points, and Emporia (12-4, 5-4 Centennial League) nearly came back to hand Rural (13-3, 10-0) its first league loss of the season.
“The girls that came off the bench brought a lot of energy that maybe we didn’t have at the beginning of the game,” Arndt said. “Their presence on the defensive end and on the offensive end made a huge impact on how we played in the second half.”
But far too often, including right up until the final play of regulation — when Rural’s Alexa Bordewick drove the lane uncontested before getting fouled and hitting two free throws to send the game into overtime — Emporia was beaten on defense.
“We just didn’t play defense well,” said senior Sadie Webb, who finished with a game-high 21 points. “We just didn’t come out ready to play.”
Emporia managed to force overtime despite an abysmal first half. Rural hit three 3-pointers in the first 3 1/2 minutes on its way to an early 11-0 lead, which the Lady Blues stretched out to 17-4 by the end of the first period.
“We were in serious trouble,” Nienstedt said. “We were just horrible. We played with no energy, no effort, no focus.”
The first half ended with the Lady Blues shooting 50 percent (13-of-26) from the field, while EHS shot just 33 percent (7-of-21). An 11-3 run out of the halftime locker room by the Lady Blues pushed a 32-20 edge at the break to a 43-23 advantage with 5 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter.
It was about that time when Nienstedt went with a lineup mostly consisting of starters Arndt and Nichole Naab and reserves Meza, Heinrichs and VanGundy, and sometimes Ashley Leihsing, and the Lady Spartans responded in a big way.
A VanGundy jumper off a feed from Meza started a 13-3 run to close the third quarter. Arndt then opened the fourth period with a layup off a strong post move in the lane, which was followed up by 3-pointers from Meza and Naab that pulled EHS to within two points at 46-44 with 6:12 left.
“Our second unit, I thought, showed great fight,” Nienstedt said. “They came in and gave us some energy, but more than energy, they gave us execution, too. Without them, we’d have been really in serious trouble.”
Rural hung on to its lead until the final minute. A low pass from Morgan Barrett to Bordewick resulted in a turnover for Rural, its seventh of the quarter, giving EHS the ball with 16.7 seconds remaining and the Lady Blues ahead 53-52.
Out of a timeout, Naab fed Webb a pass down low, which Webb converted with a layup as she was fouled, giving EHS its first lead of the game at 54-53.
“We were looking to either shoot a three or get it into the post,” Webb said. “(Nichole) could have shot it, but she saw them running out at her, and she just threw it down to me. When I caught it, I knew I had to go up strong.”
Webb made the free throw to put the Lady Spartans ahead, 55-53, but on the other end, Bordewick drove all the way to the rim before being fouled by Leihsing with 2.8 seconds left, and Bordewick hit the two free throws to tie the game and send it to overtime.
“It was a fundamental breakdown,” Nienstedt said. “We didn’t do a good job guarding Alexa, and then we don’t help early enough, and she gets all the way to the basket before we even think about helping.”
Rural scored the first six points of overtime on four free throws by Sheay Longstaff and a layup by Barrett, giving the Lady Blues all the separation they would need to hold off the Lady Spartans’ charge. Webb scored all six of Emporia’s points in the extra frame.
“It was a real positive thing to see a bunch of kids come into the game and give us great energy and great effort,” Nienstedt said. “We’ve just got to get ourselves to the point where all nine of us can do that at the same time.”
Washburn Rural 68, Emporia 61, OT
Tuesday at EHS
1 2 3 4 OT
Washburn Rural 17 15 14 9 13 — 68
Emporia 4 16 16 19 6 — 61
Washburn Rural (13-3, 10-0 Centennial League) — Sheay Longstaff 2-5 5-6 10, Morgan Barrett 6-11 0-0 16, LaSharra Riley 4-8 0-6 8, Laura Caby 3-3 0-0 6, Alexa Bordewick 1-6 11-14 14, Maggie Holmberg 3-6 0-2 6, Paige Ladenburger 1-3 0-0 2, Allison Babcock 0-2 2-2 2, Taylor Zordel 0-0 0-1 0, Kelsey Lewis 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 22-46 18-30 68.
Emporia (12-4, 5-4) — Alli Armitage 1-4 0-0 3, Sadie Webb 8-15 5-7 21, Lindy Arndt 7-13 3-5 17, Nichole Naab 2-8 2-2 7, Lexi Hileman 0-1 0-0 0, Rachelle VanGundy 3-6 0-0 6, Brittany Meza 1-4 0-0 3, Hilary Heinrichs 1-2 0-1 2, Ashley Leihsing 1-3 0-2 2. Totals 24-56 10-17 61.
3-point goals — WR 6-17 (Longstaff 1-2, Barrett 4-9, Bordewick 1-4, Holmberg 0-1, Babcock 0-1), Emporia 3-8 (Armitage 1-3, Naab 1-1, VanGundy 0-3, Meza 1-1). Rebounds — WR 32 (Riley 9), Emporia 31 (Heinrichs 6). Assists — WR 9 (Bordewick 4), Emporia 14 (VanGundy 5). Turnovers — WR 20, Emporia 17. Total fouls — WR 18, Emporia 22. Technical fouls — Emporia: Bench.