Lady Spartans to open State against tradition-rich Miege
By Michael Ashford
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
When the Emporia High girls take the court late Thursday afternoon in the first round of the Class 5A State Tournament at the Topeka Expocentre, the Lady Spartans will be facing the epitome of a basketball dynasty in Bishop Miege.
The contrast between the two programs’ histories is staggering.
The Miege girls have won a record 15 State championships; Emporia has never won a State title in girls basketball. Miege is making its 27th State Tournament appearance; EHS is in its first State Tournament since 2004.
“They’ve got great tradition,” EHS coach Bill Nienstedt said.
But none of those State titles or tournament appearances matter now. Certainly not for an EHS squad that will enter Thursday’s 4:45 p.m. game as the favorite, seeing as how the Lady Spartans (18-4) are the No. 3 seed and Miege (15-7) is the No. 6 seed.
“They (Miege) are good, but this time of year, especially in a field like what we see in 5A this year, everybody’s good,” Nienstedt said. “There are eight teams that maybe feel like if they put together a three-game stretch where they play well, they could win the thing.”
The Emporia High girls certainly feel good about their chances of coming away with the school’s first State basketball title.
Much of that confidence stems from the Lady Spartans’ Sub-State title game victory on Saturday over Kapaun Mt. Carmel in overtime, 53-52. Emporia struggled at times in its half-court offense and was uncharacteristically turnover-prone in that game, finishing with 21 giveaways.
But the fact that they played sub-par and still came away with a hard-earned victory has the Lady Spartans believing their performance against Kapaun will help keep them focused at State, where they know the slightest mistake can mean the difference between advancing or going home.
“Throughout the game, we struggled some, but getting the win shows that at the end, we were the tougher team,” sophomore Lindy Arndt said. “But we don’t want to have any more of those games. We have to be at our best this week.”
Nienstedt said Bishop Miege would challenge the Lady Spartans with their size, especially with 6-foot-2 sophomore Adrianna Maurer patrolling the low post.
Also, the Lady Stags will try to keep Emporia from running its transition game.
“They’re a big team ... and we know on defense they like to slow it down and make us run some offense,” Arndt said. “Running our offense will be key.”
But perhaps the bigger obstacle EHS must overcome will be its own inexperience. The Topeka Expocentre will be the largest venue the Lady Spartans have played in this season, not to mention the fact that only one player on the EHS roster has played at a State Tournament — senior Brittany Meza played in two Class 1A State Tournaments at Olpe before transferring to EHS.
“The kids haven’t been in this environment,” Nienstedt said. “I think we’re going to play well, though. I think playing poorly Saturday is going to help us this week. We learned a lot.”
And as for matching up with perennial power Bishop Miege, EHS senior Nichole Naab said it wouldn’t matter who the Lady Spartans played. The goal would still be the same.
“I think our chances are good,” Naab said, “but I don’t think it matters who we play. If we play hard, we can beat anybody.”