Emporia High boys hope to find missing pieces against Topeka West
By Michael Ashford
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Taylor Euler knows the Emporia High boys basketball team can be very good this season.
It’s just that the Spartans seem to be missing something right now, which is how Euler explains Emporia’s 3-3 record overall and 1-1 Centennial League record heading into Friday night’s home game against Topeka West (1-4, 0-3).
“We’re trying to find a fourth scorer or somebody who can step up and rebound and make the first easiest pass,” the junior guard said. “We’re looking for a solid five players that can go out there and be confident at all times.”
Euler is one of three returning starters for the Spartans — along with seniors Troy Pierce and Caydrick Bloomquist — and as such has been called on to be a critical cog in the foundation for EHS this season.
Emporia’s big three have held up their end of the bargain so far — they’ve accounted for 79 percent of the Spartans’ scoring this season — but that is precisely where the problem lies.
EHS has been searching for another reliable scoring threat, and while several candidates have shown flashes of being that player, none have yet been able to contribute on a consistent basis.
Coach Rick Bloomquist has a clear picture of what he’s looking for in that player.
“Right now, we’re missing an X-factor,” Bloomquist said. “We’re missing somebody who’s going to come in and give us that one extra rebound, that one extra shot. We’re missing a fifth or sixth player that will give us some balance.”
The player that appears to be most likely to fill that role is sophomore Greg Canales. Through six games, Canales is averaging just 5.5 points and 4.8 rebounds per game, but has shown a propensity to be very good at both ends, as he has season highs of 11 points and nine rebounds.
“We’ve got to have Greg not play like a sophomore,” Bloomquist said, “but I have to understand that he is a sophomore, and he’s going to give us sophomore games sometimes.”
Senior Brandon Childs (3.3 ppg, 2.8 rpg) has been active at times on both the offensive and defensive ends, but needs to become more consistent, while junior Jacob Torres (1.5 ppg, 1.3 rpg) showed flashes of becoming a bigger threat to contribute statistically when he scored seven points on 3-of-3 shooting in addition to grabbing three rebounds in Emporia’s 73-62 loss to Hayden on Dec. 21.
“I think we’re a good basketball team, we’ve just got to work some things out,” Bloomquist said. “A lot of it is still maturing as a team. We’re going to be fine, it’s just a matter of time.”
While Friday’s opponent, Topeka West, is a team Bloomquist called “scrappy” and “scary,” the Spartans hope their first game back from Christmas break offers them the chance to continue to develop their lineup, with hopes of finding a player or two that will give EHS a needed lift.
“We can be a really good team,” Euler said. “We’ve got a lot of talent out there.
“We’ve had some success in practice finding those other guys who will help us out. We’ve had a good couple of days of practice, and we’re looking forward to Topeka West.”
For the EHS girls, who are ranked No. 2 in Class 5A, they simply are trying to continue their hot start to the season, which has seen the Lady Spartans jump out to a 5-0 record overall and a 2-0 record in league play.
While there were some expected conditioning issues coming back from the break, coach Bill Nienstedt said he had not seen any rust from his players heading into Friday’s game.
“This week, we’ve had good practices each day,” he said. “Our execution has looked good, we’ve practiced really hard — we look a lot better right now, knock on wood.”
Though the undefeated Lady Spartans would appear to be heavy favorites over winless Topeka West (0-5, 0-2), Emporia still is smarting from a 64-62 overtime loss to the Lady Chargers in Topeka last season that Nienstedt said should serve as plenty motivation for his squad.
“We know that they beat us a year ago,” Nienstedt said, “and we’re going to have to come here and be ready and play the best basketball we can play.”