Trying to beat a team like the No. 1-ranked Highland Park boys is hard enough at full strength.
The Emporia High Spartans had to try and accomplish that feat Tuesday night without their leading scorer.
While EHS fought toe-to-toe with the Scots — who entered on a 30-game win streak — for three quarters, eventually, Highland Park wore the Spartans down enough to pull away, 51-32. Ninth-ranked Emporia played the majority of the game without its leading scorer, Caydrick Bloomquist, who went down with an injury to his left knee in the first quarter.
“That’s one of our best players — our leading scorer and our captain,” junior guard Taylor Euler said. “It makes you play your offense a little bit different, you’ve got to play defense different — it just shakes up your whole game plan.
“To play against a team like Highland Park without Cayd, it’s really hard to pull out a win.”
The Spartans, however, played right alongside the Scots for most of the game despite Bloomquist’s absence.
Emporia High (4-4, 2-2 Centennial League) actually tied the score in the third quarter after falling behind at halftime by nine points and then trailed by just four points heading into the final frame, but fatigue eventually set in as the Scots sent wave after wave of substitutions at the short-handed Spartans. Highland Park outscored EHS, 21-6, in the fourth quarter.
While the Spartans eventually lost by 19, EHS coach Rick Bloomquist said he was encouraged by the fight his team showed against the high-powered Scots.
“I am really proud of my kids,” Bloomquist said. “I can take this loss much better than I can take the win against Topeka West because of the way we played Topeka West. I thought my kids showed a lot of hard and desire and willpower. We had plenty of good things happen tonight, and the score doesn’t indicate the type of game it was, without a doubt.
“They (Highland Park) just have a deeper bench than we do.”
Highland Park (6-0, 3-0) used a 10-2 run to close the second quarter to go into halftime ahead, 23-14, as the Spartans went the final 6 minutes of the half without a field goal.
But out of the break, Emporia mounted a furious comeback on the shoulders of Euler, who had to assume the main scoring duties with Bloomquist and his 21 points-per-game average sitting on the bench.
A Brandon Childs bucket off a baseline drive opened the third-quarter scoring, and then Euler scored Emporia’s next seven points on a 3-pointer, a fast-break layup off a steal and a baseline jumper that tied the score at 23 — the first tie since it was 2-all.
“Coach told me to take control of the team,” said Euler, who scored all 12 of his points in the second half, “and I just tried as hard as I could to do that — to put the team on my back.”
Highland Park regained the lead at 27-23, and again, Euler brought the Spartans back to life, knocking down another 3-pointer on an inbounds play in which he passed the ball in to Troy Pierce, stepped out on the baseline, took the pass from Pierce and hit the shot, which made it 27-26.
“I just kind of flattened the corner and Troy made a good seal-off,” Euler said, “and I just popped it, and it happened to go in.”
Highland Park delivered what could have been considered the back-breaker on its next possession, however, as Rico Richardson answered Euler’s three with one of his own to make it 30-26 at the end of the third quarter. That seemed to deflate the Spartans, as the Scots came out of the break by going on an 11-2 run to get their lead to double-digits.
The Spartans could not answer the Scots offensively in the final period, especially Michael Copeland, who scored six of his seven points in the fourth quarter on several offensive stick-backs even when it appeared he didn’t have the best rebounding position.
“He’s a good player,” Pierce said. “He’s pretty strong, and we went back and forth with each other. It was a good matchup.”
The Spartans had to turn to fouling to try to close the gap, but Highland Park held off EHS by going 8-for-10 from the free-throw line over the final 4 minutes, 19 seconds of the game. All told, the Scots made 15 of 19 free throws, while the Spartans attempted just two — both makes by Pierce.
Bloomquist praised his players — namely Childs, Eric Reimer and Greg Canales — for stepping in and playing hard when called on to play more minutes than usual.
“The way we came back in the third quarter, the way we battled back, knowing that we did that short-handed, tonight, I saw something I really liked, and that’s definitely a positive for this basketball team the way some of these kids played,” he said. “If there’s a silver lining, it was how we competed not at full strength.”
As for Caydrick’s knee — he said after the game that he injured it trying to plant to go up for a shot — Rick Bloomquist said the Spartans could only hope for the best.
“It’s a concern,” Bloomquist said. “He couldn’t even lift it when he ran. We just hope it’s nothing serious — not a season-ending injury. It can’t be.”
Highland Park boys 51, Emporia 32
Tuesday at EHS
Highland Park 11 12 7 21 — 51
Emporia 6 8 12 6 — 32
Highland Park (6-0, 3-0 Centennial League) — Fields 3-5 5-5 12, Herrera 3-7 2-2 8, Inyard 0-0 0-0 0, Richardson 4-10 0-0 9, Modupe 2-10 2-4 6, Morrissey-Ramsdell 1-2 0-0 2, Copeland 3-3 1-2 7, Grant 1-5 5-6 7. Totals 17-42 15-19 51.
Emporia (4-4, 2-2) — Reimer 0-0 0-0 0, Bloomquist 1-3 0-0 2, Euler 5-14 0-0 12, Torres 0-4 0-0 0, Pierce 2-5 2-2 6, Childs 4-8 0-0 8, Canales 2-5 0-0 4, McAnarney 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-39 2-2 32.
3-point goals — HP 2-11 (Fields 1-1, Herrera 0-3, Richardson 1-5, Modupe 0-1, Grant 0-1), Emporia 2-6 (Euler 2-4, Torres 0-1, Childs 0-1). Rebounds — HP 28 (Copeland 6), Emporia 22 (Pierce 6). Assists — HP 6 (6 tied at 1), Emporia 6 (Euler, Childs 2). Turnovers — HP 7, Emporia 15. Total fouls — HP 13, Emporia 13. Fouled out — Emporia: Torres.