Lately, not much has worked against the Emporia State women.
So on Wednesday, with probably every other strategy exhausted by the rest of the MIAA, Central Missouri dared Emporia State’s shooters to shoot. With the Lady Hornets ahead by nine in the second half, the Jennies went zone and left ESU’s perimeter players wide open. Jennies coach Dave Slifer even yelled out at ESU 3-point specialist Andrea Leiker, “Shoot it.”
Leiker listened. The senior guard drained a 3-pointer, the Lady Hornets knocked in four threes in a row, went on a 21-4 run, and won their eighth straight, 93-69.
“All three of us are really good shooters,” Leiker said of herself, Cassondra Boston and Jamie Augustyn. “And when they’re leaving us open like that, we’re going to take the shots and most of the time they’re going to go in. So if they were giving us open shots, we were going to take them, and we did.”
The Lady Hornets made a conference season-best 14-of-27 3-pointers with the Jennies leaving them open most of the night. Boston hit five treys and scored 20 points. Leiker made four 3-pointers and scored 14, and Augustyn made three and scored nine.
“Had we not made those shots, it’s a good call,” ESU coach Brandon Schneider said. “Obviously they had some success there at the end of the half playing the zone, because we just didn’t execute and made some poor decisions. Fortunately for us, we made the shots when we took them.”
Schneider has spent the past few weeks trying to challenge the Hornets in different ways. He’s held the Southwest Baptist loss at home over their heads. His ammo for Wednesday was the fact that they only beat last-place Truman by nine at home on Sunday.
Emporia State (19-2, 13-1) had also played its last four games against teams all in the bottom half of the MIAA standings, and Central Missouri (14-7, 9-5) has been near the top of the conference all season.
The Lady Hornets came out as if they wanted to make a statement early, jumping out to a 19-5 lead.
“We knew they’d come out ready for us and we didn’t play as well as we should have last home game,” Boston said. “So we wanted to make sure that we came out strong this time defending our home court.”
After scoring a season-low 67 points against Truman, the Lady Hornets’ offense bounced back. They shot 54.8 percent (34-of-62) and topped the 90-point plateau for the eighth time this season.
Six of Emporia State’s last eight wins have been by double-digits, and the 24-point loss for Central Missouri was its worst of the season. That includes the exhibition season, when the Jennies lost by 18 at Division-I Creighton.
“I think we’re all playing really well together,” Boston said. “We’ve been picking it up on the defensive end and been able to execute on offense. As long as we keep playing strong, we can be a good team.”
Emporia State holds a two-game advantage on second-place Washburn and Pittsburg State. But Schneider is not out of new motivational material. The Lady Hornets’ last six games come against teams that are all in the top eight of the conference standings, and their next three are on the road, starting Saturday at Nebraska-Omaha.
“We’ve already dropped one at home, and we can’t afford to do that again if we want to be contenders for a league championship,” Schneider said. “There’s a lot of basketball left and we’ve got some really difficult challenges ahead of us.”
One thing is for certain: the challenge of shooting open jumpers is not one the Lady Hornets will probably see again.
Wednesday at White Auditorium
Central Missouri 29 40 — 69
Emporia State 40 53 — 93
CENTRAL MISSOURI (14-7, 9-5 MIAA)
Fleming 5-11 5-6 17, Roberts 3-8 9-10 15, Davenport 4-11 2-4 10, Slifer 3-6 0-0 9, Dace 2-6 1-2 5, Waggoner 2-5 0-0 5, Pence 1-2 0-0 3, Hanson 1-1 0-0 3, Blakemore 1-4 0-0 2, Shippy 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-54 17-22 69.
EMPORIA STATE (19-2, 13-1 MIAA)
Boston 6-10 3-4 20, Leiker 5-9 1-2 15, Lenard 5-9 3-3 14, Edwards 6-7 0-0 12, Augustyn 3-4 0-0 9, Volkens 3-4 2-2 8, Miller 2-7 1-4 5, Corker 2-7 1-2 5, Renberg 2-3 0-0 5, Kisner 0-1 0-0 0, Tucker 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 34-62 11-17 93.
3-point goals — Central Missouri 8-16 (Slifer 3-6, Fleming 2-2, Hanson 1-1, Waggoner 1-3, Pence 1-1, Dace 0-1, Davenport 0-2),
Emporia State 14-27 (Boston 5-7, Leiker 4-8, Augustyn 3-4, Lenard 1-2, Renberg 1-1, Kisner 0-1, Tucker 0-1, Corker 0-2, Miller 0-1). Fouled out — Central Missouri: None; Emporia State: None. Rebounds — Central Missouri 32 (Dace 6, Roberts 6), Emporia State 34 (Miller 7). Assists — Central Missouri 11 (Fleming 3, Dace 3), Emporia State 22 (Boston,Cassondra 6). Total fouls — Central Missouri 14, Emporia State 17. Att. — 1,978.