BOLIVAR, Mo. — Emporia State coach David Moe started to question himself. He started to tinker. He started to wonder why his team — the one he believed had played pretty darned well the last four games — had ended up 1-3 in those contests.
On Saturday, he paid the price for trying to make his team something it wasn’t.
“We weren’t prepared to play,” Moe said after his team’s 93-70 loss to Southwest Baptist. “I really screwed up.”
Moe’s only fault turned out to be trying too hard.
During Thursday’s practice, Moe introduced his team to a new defense — called “Box” — which was a type of 1-2-2 zone that aimed to keep the ball on one side of the court.
The coach called for the new defense in the first half against SBU.
It turned out to be a disaster.
The Bearcats, which came in with easily the highest three-point percentage in the MIAA at 43 percent, took advantage of late rotation switches and confusion from the Hornets.
The result was a three-point barrage. The Bearcats hit 12 of 23 threes in the first half (52 percent), taking a commanding 45-30 lead into halftime. SBU finished 17-of-34 from beyond the arc.
“Everything was going down, but at the same time, when you leave shooters like those open ... they’re going to hit them,” ESU forward Jordan Fithian said. “I think with more time, (that defense) could be really good. I just think we weren’t quite ready for it.”
The extra concentration on defense also seemed to zap the life out of the Hornets’ offense in the first half.
ESU committed 13 turnovers in its lowest-scoring half of the season.
“The guys focused so much on defense,” Moe said, “that we came down on offense and we stunk.”
The Hornets couldn’t recover in the second half, getting the deficit down to 48-36 with 18 minutes left but never coming any closer.
It was ESU’s worst loss since a 24-point defeat at Washburn in 2005.
“We, meaning me, got distracted,” Moe said. “We’re going to go back to what we do.
“If we lose other games, we’re going to lose the way we lost prior to today — playing the way we know we can be successful.”
D’Ante Harris was the biggest beneficiary of the Hornets’ defensive struggles. The junior finished with 28 points, draining 7 of 11 three-point attempts. He also was 6-for-9 from long range in the first half.
Six-foot-7 Jim Grabowski was nearly as impressive, going 5-for-7 from beyond the arc in his 23-point night.
Marvin Lee led ESU, scoring 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting.
Fithian, DeAndre Townsend and Wes Book added 12 points each.
ESU has now lost four straight games at SBU’s home gym.
The Hornets (5-6, 0-2 MIAA) have dropped six of their last seven games. Six of those contests were away from home.
“We’re not out of any race at all,” Fithian said. “We’ve still got a lot of games to play — a lot of season — and we’re going to learn.”
Southwest Baptist men 93, ESU 70
Saturday at Bolivar, Mo.
No. 23 ESU 30 40 — 70
Southwest Baptist 45 48 — 93
EMPORIA STATE (5-6, 0-2 MIAA)
Marvin Lee 7-10 2-4 17, Jordan Fithian 5-8 2-2 12, DeAndre Townsend 3-8 5-6 12, Wes Book 4-11 2-5 12, Andrew Davison 2-5 0-3 6, Matt Boswell 2-6 0-0 4, Caleb Tegtmeier 1-2 1-2 3, Spencer Allen 0-1 3-4 3, Dustin Andrews 0-3 1-2 1, Doug Moore 0-0 0-0 0, Alex Pyle 0-1 0-0 0, Jordan Stout 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 24-57 16-28 70.
SOUTHWEST BAPTIST (9-2, 2-0 MIAA)
D’Ante Harris 9-16 3-6 28, Jim Grabowski 8-13 2-2 23, Matthew Rogers 4-8 3-4 11, Nick Kovacevich 3-10 2-2 10, Tristan Steele 2-4 1-2 7, Steven Cunningham 2-4 0-0 4, Brandon Burgette 1-6 1-2 4, John Tiemeyer 1-1 2-2 4, Mario Morris 0-1 2-4 2, Jeremy Logan 0-0 0-0 0, Justin Brown 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-63 16-24 93.
3-point goals — Emporia State 6-16 (Book 2-3, Davison 2-5, Townsend 1-2, Lee 1-2, Andrews 0-1, Tegtmeier 0-1, Boswell 0-2), Southwest Baptist 17-34 (Harris 7-11, Grabowski 5-7, Kovacevich 2-7, Steele 2-3, Burgette 1-4, Morris 0-1, Rogers 0-1). Fouled out — Emporia State: Tegtmeier; Southwest Baptist: Brown. Rebounds — Emporia State 33 (Tegtmeier 7, Book 7), Southwest Baptist 42 (Rogers 9). Assists — Emporia State 14 (Tegtmeier 5, Townsend 5), Southwest Baptist 25 (Burgette 7). Total fouls — Emporia State 19, Southwest Baptist 23. Att — 937.