Emporia High boys basketball coach Rick Bloomquist saw Saturday night just how good his team can be when it wants something bad.
The Spartans fought their way back from an early hole and then turned it on in the fourth quarter to defeat Shawnee Heights, 64-55, in the championship game of the Ralph Miller Classic in Chanute, giving the Spartans the tournament title for the second year in a row.
“The kids played with so much will (Saturday); they played with the intangibles that you like to see kids compete with,” Bloomquist said. “We battled to win; we willed ourselves to win. They controlled us in the first half, but our kids, in the second half, I saw them compete and I saw them do things that they haven’t done all year.
“This team was unbelievably good after the first quarter.”
One of the biggest reasons the Spartans were so good was because of the record-setting performance of senior guard Caydrick Bloomquist.
Bloomquist scored a career-high 35 points — 15 coming off 3-pointers — which helped him break two tournament records. His 14 3-pointers over three games broke the old tournament record of 13, which Bloomquist set last year. His 97 total points broke the old record of 92, which was set by Rose Hill’s Clayton Dye in 1995.
“He wasn’t just a shooter (Saturday), he was a scorer that could shoot,” Rick Bloomquist said. “He found a way to get to the rim, he found a way to get to the free-throw line — the kid just played a complete game.”
Coach Bloomquist was quick to point out that Caydrick’s game would not have been possible had it not been for the perhaps overlooked efforts of the rest of the players on the floor, in particular Troy Pierce, Brandon Childs and Jacob Torres.
Though the three combined to score just 12 points against Shawnee Heights, Bloomquist said their contributions went far beyond statistics and numbers.
The coach noted that Torres was a “silent warrior” against the Thunderbirds, as he played the entire 32 minutes and held Shawnee Heights’ leading scorer, Matt Kobbeman — who scored 19 the night before — to just four points.
“The whole tournament, Brandon and Troy and Jacob weren’t getting a whole lot of publicity because the way they were playing doesn’t show up in the box score, but they are playing so well,” Bloomquist said. “When they play that hard, we’re pretty good.”
Emporia fell behind 16-11 at the end of the first quarter and then saw Shawnee Heights open up a 10-point lead at one point in the second quarter before the Spartans went on a run just before halftime to tie the score at 22.
Shawnee Heights hit back in the third quarter, as Layne Nash, who finished with 26 points, drained four 3-pointers in the quarter to help Heights take a 44-38 lead heading into the fourth period. Then, the Spartans mounted their final attack.
Emporia had fought to within one point at 49-48 with about 3 minutes to go when Caydrick Bloomquist hit a 3-pointer and was fouled. The ensuing free throw gave Emporia a three-point lead at 52-49, and Emporia never trailed again.
The Spartans began taking the ball inside on a variety of drives, drawing foul after foul to get to the free-throw line. EHS made it count from the charity stripe, draining 17 of 20 free throws in the final quarter to fend off the Thunderbirds.
“We just started pounding it inside and taking it to the basket,” Coach Bloomquist said. “We made big shots. We hit free throws down the stretch when they started fouling us.”
The Spartans improved to 8-4 on the season and return to Centennial League action this Friday at Washburn Rural followed by a trip to Shawnee Heights on Feb. 1. Bloomquist said the Spartans, now on a four-game winning streak, had improved dramatically over the past two weeks, but added that the Spartans must continue that trend.
“It’s still early in the season, and I don’t want to get too optimistic,” Bloomquist said. “We’ve got two tough games coming up with Washburn Rural and Shawnee Heights. We’re only as good as our last game. If we can continue to get better, we have a lot of potential to do special things. But the word potential doesn’t mean a whole lot until you actually do something.”
Emporia boys 64,
Shawnee Heights 55
Ralph Miller Classic
Saturday at Chanute
Shawnee Heights 16 6 22 11 — 55
Emporia 11 11 16 26 — 64
Shawnee Heights — Layne Nash 26, Jordan Cooper 14, Derek Hayes 5, Matt Kobbeman 4, Ryan Floberg 2, Nick Gardner 2, Rhett Reynolds 2.
Emporia — Bloomquist 35, Euler 15, Torres 8, Childs 3, Canales 2, Pierce 1.