Defense leads EHS girls to easy 51-24 victory
Ken Corbitt/Special to The Gazette
Saturday, February 23, 2008
TOPEKA — The Emporia girls gave themselves plenty of opportunities to score.
Emporia forced Highland Park into 10 turnovers in the first quarter, but the Lady Spartans managed to score only 10 points.
The second quarter was more of the same as the Spartans produced only eight points. But as good as Highland Park’s defense might have been, Emporia’s was even better.
The Scots scored a mere four points the first half, then the Spartans found some offense in the third quarter and rolled to a 51-24 Centennial League victory to wrap up the regular season on Friday.
The Lady Spartans were never in trouble, but they could have had the game secured much earlier had they converted the turnovers into points.
“That’s the second game in a row we’ve done that,” coach Bill Nienstedt said. “The other night at Hayden we created 16 turnovers the first half and (passed) the ball backwards probably seven times. It’s hard to attack when the first pass is not an attacking pass after the turnover.”
After scoring 18 points the first half, the Lady Spartans put up 20 in the third quarter alone. That was accomplished by pushing the ball inside and drawing fouls.
Sadie Webb made four trips to the line in the third quarter and went 7 of 8, and Emporia was 10 of 14 in the period.
“That really helped us,” Nienstedt said. “We had a hard time finding any rhythm offensively in the first half, but credit Highland Park for that because they are a good defensive team.
“They are long, athletic, they slide their feet well and they pressure you. And we didn’t make layups.”
But Highland Park couldn’t muster any offense at all. The Scots shot 11 of 43 from the field, 0 of 10 on 3-pointers, and committed 24 turnovers. They scored half of their total points in the fourth quarter.
“We were exceptionally good defensively the first half,” Nienstedt said. “We held them to four points, and if we had done a better job (defensive) boarding we would have played a nearly perfect first half.”
Webb led the Spartans with 19 points, making 11 of 12 free throws. Lindy Arndt added nine points and Lexi Hileman had six points and nine rebounds.
Emporia girls 51, Highland Park 24
Friday at Topeka
Emporia 10 8 20 13 — 51
Highland Park 2 2 8 12 — 24
Emporia (16-4, 9-4) — Armitage 1-3 0-0 3, Webb 4-7 11-12 19, Arndt 4-7 1-2 9, Naab 2-7 0-0 5, Hileman 1-5 4-4 6, Heinrichs 2-5 0-0 4, Meza 0-1 0-0 0, VanGundy 1-3 1-2 3, Leihsing 0-0 0-2 0, Miller 0-0 0-0 0, Waldner 0-0 0-0 0, Perez 1-1 0-0 2, Nuessen 0-0 0-0 0, Dorsey 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-39 17-22 51.
Highland Park (7-13, 4-9) — Jackson 1-5 0-0 2, Rhoinery 4-4 0-1 8, Russell 1-5 0-0 2, Mock 3-14 0-0 6, McClelland 0-6 2-2 2, Kingcannon 1-2 0-0 2, Ross 1-2 0-0 2, Williams 0-5 0-0 0. Totals 11-43 2-3 24.
3-point goals — Emporia 2-5 (Armitage 1-3, Naab 1-1, VanGundy 0-1), Highland Park 0-10 (Jackson 0-3, Mock 0-4, Williams 0-3). Total fouls — Emporia 10, Highland Park 14. Fouled out — None.