TOPEKA — The Emporia High boys basketball team put on a clinic on how to milk the clock Tuesday night against Hayden, and it very nearly got the Spartans a victory over the top-ranked team in Class 4A.
With senior guard Caydrick Bloomquist and his team-leading 22-points-per-game average out because of the flu, the Spartans ran a slow-down offense and made Hayden play defense for the majority of the game, which in turn never allowed Hayden’s powerful duo of Jeff Reid (17.5 ppg) and Steve Feighny (15.7 ppg) to get going.
Though Feighny and Reid were held to a combined nine points, Hayden still was able to grind its way past an undermanned EHS squad, 38-30.
“We tried to make them play defense longer than they wanted to,” said EHS coach Rick Bloomquist, who added that his team had not practiced the slow-down style all year. “All we wanted to do was disrupt their flow, and I think we did that. Under the circumstances, we could not run with them. We could not play and up-tempo game.
“I told the kids, ‘If we get into the 60s and 70s, we won’t win, but if we get them in the 30s in the fourth quarter, we’ll have given ourselves a chance to win,’ and they did that.”
In the end, Emporia fell victim to the surprise shooting of Hayden senior Brian Walker, who got the start on Senior Night and made the most of his chance, draining four 3-pointers — including two back-to-back in the fourth quarter to keep EHS at bay — to lead Hayden in scoring with 12 points.
With Emporia focused on stopping Feighny and Reid — the Spartans threw four different defensive looks at the Wildcats — Walker often was left open outside the arc to drain some of the game’s biggest shots.
“Give him all the respect in the world, he hit the shots,” said EHS junior guard Taylor Euler, who led all scorers with 14 points. “We stopped the two guys we wanted to stop, and the guy we took the risk on made us pay.”
Walker provided an immediate lift for the Wildcats (18-1, 11-1 Centennial League), as he hit back-to-back treys during an 8-3 Hayden run to open the game. Emporia, meanwhile, turned the ball over on its first three possessions and did not get a shot off until the 4-minute mark when Euler hit a three that cut Hayden’s lead to 5-3.
Hayden’s lead eventually grew to 12-5, and the first quarter ended with the Wildcats leading 14-8.
“Those early turnovers got us in a hole,” Euler said.
Interestingly enough, Emporia’s offensive tactics did not allow Hayden’s regular starters to get into the game until late in the first quarter, as the first stoppage of play did not come until just 28 seconds remained in the opening frame.
Hayden then began the second quarter with a basket by T.J. Greevy 30 seconds in that made it 16-8, and then neither team scored again until McGreevy knocked down a pair of free throws with 2:57 left in the half to put the Wildcats up 18-8.
Then came the offensive highlights of the night for the Spartans (11-8, 6-6), who closed out the half on a 6-0 run showcased by a pair of Brandon Childs dunks, which drew EHS to within 18-14 at the break.
Childs first dunk came as he drove the left baseline and slammed it home over three Hayden defenders: Feighny, Reid and Zack Hanks.
After two missed Hayden shots sandwiched a basket by Emporia’s Troy Pierce, Childs kept the momentum going with another slam off a feed from Euler just before the halftime buzzer.
“It was nice to get some down finally,” Childs said. “I was up there, so I thought, ‘I might as well dunk it.’”
Emporia continued to stall on offense in the second half, but Hayden managed to keep the lead by hitting timely shots, and the Wildcats looked to put the game away with baskets by Hanks and Reid to start the fourth quarter that put the Wildcats ahead 28-19. Then, Walker hit his last two 3-pointers to help stave off the Spartans for good.
EHS twice pulled to within four points down the stretch, but a Euler 3-pointer that made it 34-30 with 2 minutes left would be Emporia’s last points.
“Once the game settled, they (Hayden) got tired of playing that game, and the game fell into our hands and we played the way we wanted to play,” Bloomquist said. “If we get a couple shots in the fourth quarter to fall, it might be a different story.”
Hayden 38, Emporia 30
Tuesday at Topeka
Emporia 8 6 5 11 — 30
Hayden 14 4 6 14 — 38
Emporia (11-8, 6-6 Centennial League) — Brandon Childs 3-5 0-0 6, Greg Canales 2-4 0-0 4, Taylor Euler 5-13 1-2 15, Jacob Torres 0-5 0-0 0, Troy Pierce 1-1 4-4 6, Matt McAnarney 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 11-28 5-6 30.
Hayden (18-1, 11-1) — Steve Feighny 1-3 1-2 3, Cody Martinek 1-1 0-0 2, Brian Walker 4-8 0-1 12, Daniel Lierz 1-1 0-0 2, Zack Hanks 3-6 3-6 9, Jeff Reid 2-5 2-4 6, T.J. McGreevy 1-4 2-3 4, Kurt Walker 0-2 0-0 0, Christian Rabe 0-2 0-0 0, Sam Hund 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-32 8-16 38.
3-point goals — Emporia 3-11 (Canales 0-2, Euler 3-8, Torres 0-1), Hayden 4-10 (B. Walker 4-7, Reid 0-1, McGreevy 0-1, K. Walker 0-1). Rebounds — Emporia 20 (Pierce 8), Hayden 21 (Hanks 9). Assists — Emporia 6 (Euler, Torres 2), Hayden 6 (McGreevy 3). Turnovers — Emporia 9, Hayden 3. Total fouls — Emporia 13, Hayden 10.