JUNCTION CITY — In the days prior to Friday night’s game against Junction City, Emporia High boys basketball coach Rick Bloomquist could sense that something just wasn’t right with his team.
The Spartans, he said, could best be described in one word — uncomfortable.
“We just weren’t hitting on all cylinders with our offense,” Bloomquist said. “I haven’t seen comfort out of a couple people all year, and I hadn’t seen balance.”
So a mid-week sit-down with EHS girls coach Bill Nienstedt to discuss the Lady Spartans’ offense — a three-man motion offense — was the solution Bloomquist sought to his team’s problems before its first road game of the season against the Blue Jays.
The result?
Emporia played easily its best game of the season, pounding the Blue Jays, 64-42, and looked good doing it, too, despite having just three days of practice in the new offense.
“How could you not enjoy watching that team play tonight?” Bloomquist said afterward, a huge grin spread across his face. “Contrary to popular belief about my ego, I don’t have that big of ego that I can’t make a change. We’d never run it (the motion offense) before, but I’ll tell you what, you couldn’t tell. The balance of the offense was so good.”
Indeed, Emporia’s scoring was spread out more than it had been all season long. While senior guard Caydrick Bloomquist made a successful return to the court after suffering a knee injury against Highland Park on Tuesday to score a game-high 23 points, five other Spartans had at least six points to help EHS to a 47-percent shooting performance (26-of-55) from the field.
“We played like a team,” Caydrick Bloomquist said. “We played like a team should.”
Emporia wasted little time showing off its new offense.
Emporia High began the game with back-to-back 3-pointers from Jacob Torres and Caydrick Bloomquist that made it 6-0. Following layups from Troy Pierce and Bloomquist, Torres hit another three that made it 13-4 EHS, prompting Junction City to call a timeout.
Out of the break, Bloomquist hit a 3-pointer from the right wing, and just like that, Emporia high’s lead was in double figures at 16-4, and the Spartans lead would never drop below 10 the rest of the way.
“We wanted to hit them in the mouth from the beginning and go from there — hit them hard and just keep building off of that,” Caydrick said.
Added Pierce: “We just had a lot of energy — energy from the people on the floor and from the guys on the bench. We were just working together, and good things happened.”
Emporia led at halftime, 30-17, and the Spartans quickly doused any thoughts of a second-half slowdown by pushing their lead past the 20-point barrier with a layup by Taylor Euler off a steal that came with 1:15 left to go in the third period.
“The persistence that we had — they were having fun, and they felt good with each other,” Rick Bloomquist said. “They didn’t have to work at it, it just came in the flow. I could feel the flow. It was fun.”
But for as good as the Spartans were offensively, they were even better on the defensive end.
For the game, EHS held Junction City to a dismal 15-of-54 shooting (28 percent), as only one Blue Jay — Aaron Jackson — scored in double figures with 11 points, but it took Jackson 16 shots to get there.
“We all just stuck to our man,” Pierce said, “and helped each other out when we needed it.”
Bloomquist said more tweaks could be in the works for the EHS boys as the weeks go on, but for now, he said he would enjoy the Spartans’ best performance of the season.
“I think this could jump-start us,” the coach said. “That was a lot of fun.”
Emporia boys 64, Junction City 42
Friday at Junction City
Emporia 18 12 15 19 — 64
Junction City 6 11 7 18 — 42
Emporia (5-4, 3-2 Centennial League) — Bra. Childs 4-7 0-1 8, Bloomquist 8-16 3-4 23, Euler 4-11 0-1 8, Torres 2-6 0-1 6, Pierce 4-9 0-1 8, Canales 3-3 0-1 6, Reimer 1-1 0-0 2, McAnarney 0-0 0-0 0, Roberson 0-0 3-3 3, Jamison 0-1 0-0 0, Bry. Childs 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-55 6-9 64.
Junction City (3-4, 1-2) — Birchmeier 1-4 0-0 3, Jackson 4-16 2-2 11, Caine 1-3 2-4 4, Lotson 2-9 1-3 6, Carter 2-12 1-2 5, Rivers 3-3 0-0 7, Ingle 2-5 0-0 5, Brown 0-2 1-2 1. Totals 15-54 7-13 42.
3-point goals — Emporia 6-18 (Bloomquist 4-11, Euler 0-3, Torres 2-4), JC 5-15 (Birchmeier 1-3, Jackson 1-6, Lotson 1-3, Rivers 1-1, Ingle 1-2). Rebounds — Emporia 43 (Pierce 11), JC 31 (Carter 9). Assists — Emporia 14 (Euler 7), JC 3 (Carter 2). Turnovers — Emporia 15, JC 10. Total fouls — Emporia 9, JC 14.