Spartan boys, girls look to move on from losses to Rural
EHS squads to face Manhattan on Friday
By Michael Ashford
Thursday, February 14, 2008
The Emporia High boys basketball team was embarrassed by its showing in a 67-59 home loss to Washburn Rural on Tuesday.
So, the Spartans are going to forget about it.
“We’re just going to drop it,” EHS coach Rick Bloomquist said. “We’re going to drop how we played and not dwell on it. This is the part of the season where you don’t dwell on things anymore.
“This is one where we just have to say, ‘Collectively, it was a bad game, and we’re going to approach Manhattan with some business to take care of.’”
Indeed, the Spartans will look to get back to their winning ways against a Manhattan team that is 15-2 overall and 8-2 in the Centennial League. The Indians are the only team that can claim a victory over Class 4A’s No. 1-ranked team, Hayden.
The Spartans’ play against Rural, in a game that saw EHS fall behind 22-8 after the first quarter, certainly is puzzling considering it came on the heels of Emporia’s most crisp effort of the season against Seaman last Friday. EHS had won six of its last seven games heading into the matchup against Rural, and against Seaman, had all five starters reach double-figure scoring in a 75-55 victory over the Vikings.
“We played so good against Seaman and it was such a balanced effort,” EHS junior guard Taylor Euler said. “We wanted to carry that over so bad.
“(But) we came out, and everyone played for themselves. Obviously, it didn’t work, and we got into a huge hole. Once you get down that much, it’s hard to win.”
The Spartans can take some solace — albeit slight — in the fact that they were the victims of a near-perfect shooting night by Rural’s Justin Werner. Werner hit his first 10 shots and finished 10-of-12 from the field en route to a 29-point outing. He scored in every way, from deep 3-pointers to slashing drives.
“I don’t want to take away from how well Werner shot it,” Bloomquist said. “In all the years that I’ve been coaching, I don’t know that I’ve seen a better shooting display in one half of basketball. Werner was absolutely amazing.”
But in that realization is another lesson for the Spartans, Bloomquist said, as he compared Manhattan’s Sam Kenney to Werner.
“If we let Kenney get free like we did Werner, then obviously I’ve got some serious issues to deal with,” Bloomquist said.
As for the Emporia High girls, who are also coming off a loss to Washburn Rural in which they fell in a deep hole at the start of the game, they will look to carry over the way they played in the second half against the Lady Blues into the matchup against the Lady Indians. Against Rural, EHS came back from 20 points down to take a two-point lead with 9 seconds left before falling in overtime, 68-61.
“I think it gives us a little life,” senior Sadie Webb said of the comeback, “but I also think it shows us that we need to be prepared when we come out for every game. It’s getting down to the end of the season, and we only have a few games left until the postseason. We’ve got to come ready every game from here on out.”
Manhattan is 10-6 overall and 6-3 in league play, while Emporia, ranked fourth in Class 5A, is 12-4 and 5-4.