The Emporia High girls basketball team went into Friday night’s game against Topeka West hoping to showcase the defensive improvements it had made over the winter break.
If the Lady Spartans actually improved this much, the rest of the Centennial League better watch out.
No. 2-ranked (Class 5A) Emporia forced a whopping 43 turnovers — yes, 43 — on its way to an 84-30 victory over the winless Lady Chargers.
“We practiced really hard over the break. We stepped up and got a lot better on defense over the break, and it really showed,” senior guard Brittany Meza said. “We’ve been working a lot harder at it (defense), and it’s gotten a lot better since the beginning of the year.”
The biggest beneficiary of the Lady Spartans’ pickpocket defense was Emporia’s offense, as Emporia’s 84 points were a season high. EHS (6-0, 3-0 Centennial League) scored a majority of those points on fast breaks, simply out-running the Lady Chargers (0-6, 0-4) to nearly every loose ball from baseline to baseline.
“We talked about the fact that we should be able to get something in either our primary break or our secondary break — our early offense — every trip,” EHS coach Bill Nienstedt said, “without having to run a lot of 5-on-5 if we just push the ball.”
West managed to keep things close for a while early on before its turnover problems began in full force.
Two and a half minutes into the game, West trailed by just one at 7-6. But then, Emporia forced turnovers on six straight Lady Charger possessions that helped the Lady Spartans push their lead to 16-6. EHS led 16-8 at the end of the first quarter, and already, West had given the ball away 10 times.
Five different Lady Spartans scored in a 10-0 run to begin the second quarter that broke the game open, as EHS held a 26-8 lead just 1 minute, 15 seconds into the period.
By the midway mark of the second quarter, the Lady Chargers actually were a perfect 5-for-5 from the field but still trailed by 23 points at 36-13 because they also had totaled 21 turnovers up to that point.
Meanwhile, Emporia made 11 of 16 shots in the second quarter in opening up a 44-17 lead by halftime.
“We finished well at the end of the second quarter with some intensity right after a time when we thought they were playing harder than we were,” Nienstedt said. “The fact that they were 5-for-5 at one point really bothered me, because we were kind of all-or-nothing. We either got them to turn it over or we gave them an easy shot.”
West didn’t fare much better in the second half, while Emporia might have been even better defensively. After allowing the Lady Chargers to shoot 7-for-10 from the field in the first half, EHS held West to just 6-of-16 shooting after halftime. For the game, Emporia made more shots (32-of-55) than West attempted (26).
“We got after it after the break,” said sophomore Lindy Arndt, who led all scorers with 18 points. “There might have been times in the first half where they got some easy baskets that we shouldn’t have let them have, but for the most part, we kept it up and got after it the whole game.”
The one player who perhaps exemplified Emporia’s stellar defensive showing was Meza, who had her best game as a Lady Spartan after transferring from Olpe this year.
Meza finished with seven points, but more importantly, dished out a game-high six assists, with many coming on nifty passes in the fast break after collecting a variety of steals.
“I’m actually more comfortable running the fast break,” Meza said. “I’m pretty confident in our guards getting out and running, and that helps.”
While forcing more than 40 turnovers a game isn’t to be expected every time out, Nienstedt said Friday’s game proved his players had perhaps taken to heart the task of getting better defensively.
“And all good defense starts with (pressure),” Nienstedt said. “We’ve gotten better at that. We’re not great by any stretch of the imagination, but we’re getting there.”
Emporia girls 84, Topeka West 30
Friday at EHS
Topeka West 8 9 4 9 — 30
Emporia 16 28 18 22 — 84
Topeka West (0-6, 0-4 Centennial League) — Bloodworth 0-0 0-0 0, Durant 0-1 0-0 0, Anderson 2-3 2-2 6, Okoronkwo 3-4 1-2 7, Brooks 1-3 0-0 2, Stanley 2-5 0-0 4, Henry 3-5 0-0 6, McMahon 1-2 0-0 2, Adams 1-2 1-3 3, Shuler 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 13-26 4-7 30.
Emporia (6-0, 3-0) — Armitage 0-1 0-0 0, Webb 4-6 7-8 15, Arndt 8-13 2-4 18, Naab 5-11 1-1 11, Hileman 3-6 1-4 7, Meza 2-4 1-2 6, VanGundy 5-9 2-2 14, Heinrichs 3-3 0-1 6, Leihsing 2-2 0-0 4, Scheve 0-0 0-1 0, Waldner 0-0 3-4 3. Totals 32-55 17-27 84.
3-point goals — TW 0-1 (Durant 0-1), Emporia 3-8 (Naab 0-2, Meza 1-2, VanGundy 2-4). Rebounds — TW 22 (Okoronkwo 5), Emporia 22 (Hileman 6). Assists — TW 5 (Stanley 2), Emporia 17 (Meza 6). Turnovers — TW 43, Emporia 11. Total fouls — TW 18, Emporia 14. Fouled out — TW: Stanley.
hartford (anonymous) says...
Way to go Brittany Meza!
January 5, 2008 at 11:10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )