Emporia High girls basketball coach Bill Nienstedt told his players to not guard past the three-point line in the second half of Thursday night’s game against Wyandotte.
Wyandotte’s Delisa Randle took full advantage, draining 4 of 4 3-pointers in the second half against Emporia’s sagging defense.
Not that it mattered much.
Though Randle finished with a game-high 19 points, the fact that only one of her teammates joined her in the scoring column told the story, as the Lady Spartans demolished Wyandotte, 73-23, on the first day of the Glacier’s Edge Tournament at EHS.
“There were still things we were trying to work on, even with a big lead,” Nienstedt said. “One of them was we wanted to work on our defenses so we could challenge ourselves and keep focused, and I thought our kids did a good job of that.
“But give their (Wyandotte’s) kids credit, they continued to fight right until the end.”
The Lady Spartans (9-2) made it a yawner right from the start, as Emporia jumped out to an 11-2 run just 2 minutes into the game.
The Lady Spartans took a 20-6 lead by the end of the first quarter thanks to seven early points by senior Sadie Webb, and the rout was on.
“Coach wanted us to go out and punch them in the mouth,” said Webb, who finished with a team-high 14 points.
EHS time and time again preyed on bad Wyandotte passes in the first half, forcing the Lady Bulldogs into 22 turnovers in the first two periods and scoring 19 points off of those takeaways on their way to a 42-10 lead at halftime.
“We knew as soon as we got a rebound or a turnover, we could outlet it and go and get down the court for easy transition baskets,” Rachelle VanGundy said.
The stats were not pretty for Wyandotte at the break. The Lady Bulldogs hit just 4 of 15 (27 percent) field goals, as only two Lady Bulldogs scored — Randle had six points and Desiree Patton had four.
Out of halftime, though, the scoring became completely one-sided for Wyandotte. Randle was the only source of offense in the second half, scoring all 13 of Wyandotte’s second-half points, with 12 coming on 3-pointers.
“She’s a nice player,” Nienstedt said, “especially with the catch-and-shoot.”
Meanwhile, though Emporia mostly played its reserves after the break, the Lady Spartans continued to increase their lead. A 10-0 run out of the locker room made it 52-10 with 4 minutes left in the third quarter.
Randle then scored 10 points over the next 2 1/2 minutes, but it mattered little, as the Lady Spartans’ lead only closed to 58-20.
“As a whole, we didn’t have very many breakdowns,” VanGundy said. “There were only a few times where one or two people didn’t have their assignments. It’s good when we’re all playing defense together.”
Though the game obviously was in hand by the start of the fourth quarter — EHS led 60-20 — Nienstedt said he was pleased with how his players, in particular the bench players, kept their focus despite Emporia’s ever-growing lead.
“It was a game where we got the chance for some kids to play for three quarters instead of when they normally have to play a JV game before the varsity game and then can only play one quarter in varsity,” he said. “We wanted to continue to try and run, and though we didn’t get as many opportunities to do that ... when we got our chances, we did.”
Emporia moved into the championship semifinals of the tournament, where it will meet Wichita North at 8:30 tonight. North defeated Olathe East, 52-45. In the other games Thursday night, Shawnee Heights beat Leavenworth, 50-31, and Shawnee Mission East defeated Topeka West, 78-27.
Emporia girls 73, Wyandotte 23
Glacier’s Edge Tournament
Thursday at EHS
Wyandotte 6 4 10 3 — 23
Emporia 20 22 18 13 — 73
Wyandotte — Delisa Randle 6-13 3-4 19, Desiree Patton 2-9 0-2 4, Jasmine Kinney 0-4 0-0 0, Veronica Davis 0-0 0-0 0, Janain Kennedy 0-3 0-0 0, Royce Shields 0-1 0-0 0, Shamel Stokes 0-2 0-0 0, Jazzy Hayes 0-2 0-0 0, Monique Staffold 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 8-37 3-6 23.
Emporia (9-2) — Brittany Meza 1-2 0-0 2, Sadie Webb 5-10 4-5 14, Lindy Arndt 5-10 1-2 11, Nichole Naab 5-10 1-2 12, Lexi Hileman 5-8 0-3 10, Hilary Heinrichs 1-7 2-2 4, Rachelle VanGundy 3-6 2-2 8, Ashley Leihsing 2-3 2-3 6, Janae Scheve 0-0 0-0 0, Amber Miller 0-5 0-2 0, Courtney Waldner 3-6 0-4 6. Totals 30-67 12-25 73.
3-point goals — Wyandotte 4-6 (Randle 4-4, Patton 0-1, Saffold 0-1), Emporia 1-5 (Naab 1-2, VanGundy 0-2, Miller 0-1). Rebounds — Wyandotte 33 (Randle, Stokes 5), Emporia 41 (Arndt, Heinrichs 7). Assists — Wyandotte 1 (Shields 1), Emporia 8 (VanGundy, Scheve 2). Turnovers — Wyandotte 38, Emporia 9. Total fouls — Wyandotte 19, Emporia 10. Fouled out — Wyandotte: Davis.