Emporia State coach Brandon Schneider entered Wednesday’s game against Missouri Southern knowing his team’s biggest weakness.
Turnovers, however, didn’t kill the Lady Hornets.
Instead, defense did.
ESU allowed 90 points in a 90-71 loss to the Lions — the second time in Schneider’s 10 years as head coach that the Lady Hornets have given up 90 or more points.
“Every time we started to get back in, we couldn’t get a stop,” ESU senior Michelle Stueve said. “That (our defense) is a given. We have to have it.”
The scoring outburst came against an ESU defensive unit that had been playing well.
The Lady Hornets had allowed 63 points or fewer to five of their last six opponents.
“We know how to play defense, and we’re good at it,” ESU forward Allie Renberg said. “For some reason on the road, I don’t know, we didn’t come ready to play.”
Defense and rebounding played the biggest part in Southern’s offensive explosion.
ESU was dominated in the post, getting out-rebounded 46-24 by Southern’s bigger forwards.
“I think they came out and wanted to play physically tough on us,” Stueve said, “and I think they did just that.”
“Coach said it was going to be physical,” Renberg added, “but I guess we didn’t know how physical until we got out there.”
The Lions finished 34-of-38 from the free-throw line, shooting 90 percent.
Southern also gained confidence from a fast start, grabbing a 27-10 advantage just 9 minutes, 12 seconds in.
“I hate to say we played poor defense in the first 10 minutes,” Schneider said, “becuase it turns out we played poor defense for the majority of the ballgame.”
The Lady Hornets will go against another tough post player on Sunday, taking on Missouri Western’s Jill Johnson.
The senior is averaging 17.2 points and 8.7 rebounds per game.
Johnson posted 16 points and 9 rebounds per game in her two outings against ESU last year.
Guard Yanique Javois leads Western offensively, averaging 18 points per game.
The Griffons come in fifth in the conference in scoring (73.3 ppg).
Meanwhile ESU, which won the turnover battle 18-17 against Southern, will look to shore up its play on both ends of the floor.
“We can’t fix our turnovers and then not rebound,” Stueve said. “We have to do everything.”
Hornets look to rebound
The ESU men probably won’t have the services of injured guard Wes Book for at least a couple weeks.
Now, the Hornets have to show they can play well without him.
ESU hasn’t performed well in its two outings this season without Book, losing to Nebraska-Omaha and Missouri Southern by an average of 16.5 points.
The Hornets take on Missouri Western, which shares the same record at 8-8, on Sunday.
“I think that could be a big bounce-back game,” ESU senior Caleb Tegtmeier said. “We need that game bad just to stay on track here.”
After an emotional overtime victory at Central Missouri last Saturday, ESU seemed to take a step back with its 85-66 loss to Missouri Southern on Wednesday.
The Hornets led 13-2 before giving up 18-3 runs in each half.
ESU trailed by as many as 24 in the second half.
“We did get slaughtered pretty bad, but there’s not quit in us,” Tegtmeier said. “We’re not going to flop over from just this one.”
Western is led by the inside-outside combo of Lonnel Johnson and Reggie Bunch.
The guard Johnson averages 17.9 points per game, while the 6-foot-5 forward Bunch contributes 16.8 points per contest.
The Hornets, which find themselves in a four-way tie for fourth in the topsy-turvy MIAA standings, believe they aren’t out of any race yet.
“It’s a long conference season,” ESU guard Andrew Davison said. “We’re not even through the first round of the conference left. There’s plenty of time.”