It was the type of game Emporia High boys basketball coach Rick Bloomquist knew EHS junior guard Taylor Euler had in him.
And boy was Bloomquist pleased when he saw it happen.
Euler got the Spartans kick-started Friday night against Goddard in the semifinals of the Ralph Miller Classic in Chanute, scoring 16 of his career-high tying 24 points in the first half to boost the fifth-seeded Spartans past the eighth-seeded Lions, 75-44. Euler also had a team-leading 11 rebounds and only one turnover.
“Taylor had his best game in a Spartan uniform tonight. He played wonderful,” Bloomquist said. “I’ve been waiting for that all year long, and not that he had been playing bad, but he just has so much potential coiled up in that body of his.
“I think he felt in rhythm tonight. He had to, because I don’t know what else it was. He was good.”
Euler and senior Caydrick Bloomquist, who scored a game-high 28 points, combined to out-score Goddard by themselves, 52-44.
But, Coach Bloomquist said the Spartans’ performance was much more than a one- or two-man show.
“It was a pretty fun game to watch tonight,” he said. “It wasn’t just (Euler and Caydrick). We were all playing together, and when we’re all playing together and we’ve got ball movement, that just opens up so many things for us. They (Euler and Caydrick) were in rhythm with everybody and everybody was in rhythm with them.”
Thanks to an offensive style that Bloomquist said was nicknamed “pummel,” — one that is different than the recently unveiled three-man motion offense the Spartans used in wins over Junction City and Joplin (Mo.) — the Spartans (7-4) did just that to the hapless Lions (2-8), who were coming off the upset of the tournament the night before when they defeated top-seeded Chanute.
Aside from a 10-0 run by Goddard in the third quarter that cut a 26-point EHS lead down to 16, Bloomquist said the Spartans looked nearly flawless.
“We’ve been running that motion offense, and when you run it some, people scout it, and so we have another offense we run,” Bloomquist said. “The pummel offense — it’s more of a freelance kind of game with rules. It was an offensive masterpiece of catching, shooting and making baskets.”
For the second time in the three years that EHS has played in the Ralph Miller Classic, the Spartans will be in the title game. Least year, EHS won the tournament over Andover Central.
This year, however, Emporia will meet a familiar face in the title game, as second-seeded Shawnee Heights — a fellow Centennial League school with Emporia — knocked off third-seeded Andover Central in the other championship semifinal, 70-62.
“It’s going to be a good game,” Bloomquist said. “Shawnee Heights is a nice team — a senior-oriented team. They only have two losses, and so they are playing with a lot of confidence.”
EHS and Shawnee Heights (9-2) will battle for the Ralph Miller Classic title at approximately 7 tonight.