Lady Spartans can't hold lead in 57-55 overtime loss to Miege
By Michael Ashford
Friday, March 7, 2008
TOPEKA — Just when the Emporia High girls basketball team appeared primed to run away from Bishop Miege Thursday night in the first round of the Class 5A State Tournament, the Lady Spartans forgot to take their offense with them.
The third-seeded EHS girls saw an 11-point, second-half lead erased by the start of the fourth quarter, then had to battle back in the final minutes to force overtime before Miege got two free throws from Jessica Raplinger with 7 seconds left to lift the No. 6-seeded Lady Stags to a 57-55 victory.
Emporia was doomed by three long scoring droughts in the final 16 minutes, surprising considering the Lady Spartans’ offense hardly could be stopped in the first half.
“We just didn’t come out and slug them in the mouth like we should have,” junior guard Alli Armitage said. “We just didn’t finish the game like we needed to.”
Emporia did, in fact, finish strong at the end of regulation. The Lady Spartans — thanks in part to inconsistent free-throw shooting from Miege — were able to come back from a four-point deficit in the final minute to force overtime, as Armitage hit a 3-pointer with 4 seconds left that tied the game at 50 to send it to an extra period.
But it was the first 14 1/2 minutes of the second half that will haunt Emporia.
EHS (18-5) led at halftime, 33-24, thanks to a blistering offensive showing that saw the Lady Spartans make 13 of 21 shots (62 percent) in the first half.
Emporia then stretched its lead out to 11 moments into the second half when Lexi Hileman followed a Sadie Webb miss with a put-back, giving EHS its largest lead of the game at 35-24.
But over the next 4 minutes, 12 seconds, Emporia went scoreless while Miege — the defending 5A State Champion — put together an 8-0 run capped by Hannah Westoff’s three-point play that made it 35-32 with 3:53 left in the third period.
Sadie Webb broke the dry spell with a pair of free throws, but that did not halt Emporia’s offensive woes. The Lady Spartans did not score again until Lindy Arndt’s layup with 3 seconds left in the quarter made it 39-all, just 30 seconds after Miege had taken the the lead on a Ashely Thayer 3-pointer.
Miege (16-7) outscored Emporia, 15-6, in the third frame, as the Lady Spartans went just 2-for-9 from the field and had nine turnovers in the quarter.
“We weren’t going hard on the defensive end,” Webb said. “We weren’t pressuring, so it was hard for us to get out and push the ball on offense.
“We didn’t finish around the basket, either.”
Emporia took back the lead with a basket by Hileman off a Nichole Naab miss with 6:42 remaining in the game, but once more, Emporia’s offense faded away. A 5-minute, 22-second scoreless stretch by EHS allowed Miege to go on a 6-0 run, giving the Lady Stags a 45-41 lead with 1 1/2 minutes left.
An Armitage jumper in the lane pulled EHS back to within two at 45-43, and by then, Emporia had resorted to fouling.
The Lady Stags’ Rosie Youngstrom went to the free-throw line eight times in the last 1:13, but made just five of those shots, giving EHS a glimmer of hope. EHS countered with a layup by Rachelle VanGundy and two free throws from Armitage, and after Youngstrom missed the last of her free-throw attempts with 11.7 seconds left, EHS had time for one last shot.
Webb rebounded Youngstrom’s miss and dished it off to Armitage, who sliced through the Miege defense before finding herself all alone at the top of the key. She pulled up with less than 5 seconds left and swished the shot, tying the score at 50 to send the game into overtime.
“It was the best feeling ever,” said Armitage, who finished with 10 points. “Whether it was me or any of my teammates, we knew what shot we needed. The shot was there, and you’ve got to shoot it with time going down like that.”
In overtime, EHS pushed out to a 55-52 lead. After two Brittany Meza free throws gave the Lady Spartans the three-point lead with 51 seconds left, Miege responded when Thayer curled off a screen at the top of the key and drained a three to tie it again at 55.
“I saw a girl get a wide-open look,” EHS coach Bill Nienstedt said. “We didn’t hedge off a screen; we played a little selfish defensively and gave one of their best shooters a wide-open look, and she was tough enough to knock it down.”
Emporia tried to hold for the final shot, but after Hileman missed a layup, she came down on top of Raplinger in a fight for the rebound, sending Raplinger to the free-throw line with 6.7 seconds left.
Raplinger hit both free throws, and Arndt’s three-point attempt at the buzzer was blocked, ending Emporia’s season.
Perhaps Emporia’s biggest hindrance was its free-throw shooting, especially in the first half. EHS went just 4-of-12 from the foul line in the first half and finished 11-of-20, an oddity considering the Lady Spartans this season had made more free throws than their opponents attempted.
“That could have given us some breathing room, and it would have made it a lot easier to withstand their run,” Nienstedt said of the missed free throws. “But that’s the way it goes sometimes.
“I was proud of our kids for fighting back after giving up the lead. It would have been easy to lay down.”
Bishop Miege 57, Emporia 55, OT
Thursday at Topeka
1 2 3 4 OT
Bishop Miege 13 11 15 11 7 — 57
Emporia 20 13 6 11 5 — 55
Bishop Miege (16-7) — Rosie Youngstrom 3-11 7-11 13, Ashely Thayer 4-9 2-3 13, Morgan Lewis 0-0 0-0 0, Tshayla Person 0-2 0-0 0, Megan Wolf 1-2 0-0 3, Jessica Raplinger 3-7 6-6 12, Hannah Westoff 4-5 4-7 12, Adrianna Maurer 2-5 0-0 4. Totals 17-41 19-27 57.
Emporia (18-5) — Brittany Meza 0-0 2-3 2, Rachelle VanGundy 2-4 0-0 5, Alli Armitage 3-8 2-2 10, Ashley Leihsing 1-1 0-0 2, Sadie Webb 2-10 4-7 8, Lindy Arndt 5-8 0-0 10, Hilary Heinrichs 2-2 1-2 5, Nichole Naab 1-5 0-2 3, Lexi Hileman 4-6 2-4 10. Totals 20-44 11-20 55.
3-point goals — BM 4-9 (Youngstrom 0-1, Thayer 3-6, Wolf 1-2), Emporia 4-11 (VanGundy 1-3, Armitage 2-5, Webb 0-1, Arndt 0-1, Naab 1-1). Rebounds — BM 29 (Raplinger, Westoff 7), Emporia 30 (Hileman 12). Assists — BM 9 (Youngstrom 4), Emporia 13 (Arndt 4). Turnovers — BM 18, Emporia 17. Total fouls — BM 15, Emporia 21.