Emporia High basketball coach Rick Bloomquist uses superlatives — good and bad — with some regularity. So after a particularly tough loss, when he feeds you an assertion that the 2008-09 EHS boys are “the poorest-coached team in Emporia High history,” a grain of salt is probably a good seasoning to top it with.
Still, following a fourth quarter Tuesday night in which the Spartans gave up a nearly game-long lead and became Topeka West’s first Centennial League victory by a 54-46 score, Bloomquist was tired, frustrated and self-blaming. This loss, in his mind, was his fault.
“It’s because good coaches can get their kids to do what they want ’em to do all of the time, not part of the time,” he said. “And right now, I can’t get my kids to do what I want ’em to do. So the bottom line here is, as bad as that game was... the reason we didn’t do what we were supposed to do is because we’re poorly coached, for the reason I just gave you.”
What didn’t the Spartans do that Bloomquist wanted them to do?
In the decisive fourth quarter, in which EHS was outscored 19-7, little went right for them at all. But throughout the game, Bloomquist wanted the Spartans to pound the ball inside to Greg Canales, who’s come on strong as a consistent inside presence during the last couple of weeks. The Spartans did that some in the first half, and Canales had eight points, helping EHS to an advantage that reached as many as 11 before shrinking to 26-23 at half.
In the second half, Emporia (8-9, 5-5 Centennial League) settled for jumpers to a degree that infuriated its coach, and Canales had just five more points the rest of the way.
“Now, he got in foul trouble a little bit the second half, and we had to do some different things. But he went back in, and we stopped,” Bloomquist said. “We stopped going to him for different reasons, and we just start firing up shots, we start forcing things.
“We get a lead, we think that gives us the green light to do anything we want to do. And it’s not gonna work in the Centennial League.”
Despite a dominant performance by junior Alex North, who had 30 points on 12-of-16 shooting, Topeka West didn’t grab its first second-half lead until just 3:44 remained in the game, when Tyrell Brown sank two free throws to make it 44-43. Before that, EHS had built a 37-29 lead when Taylor Euler hit a three from the top of the key with fewer than three minutes left in the third. Back-to-back threes by Jarrod Kruger and North brought Topeka West (5-12, 1-9) to within two, but two Jacob Torres free throws made it 39-35 Spartans after three quarters.
“I was happy with how we were playing in the middle of the second quarter, at the end of the third quarter,” Bloomquist said. “We were playing with continuity, we were playing with poise, I thought we were playing together, I thought we had a well-balanced offense. ... And then, we just went a little haywire. It was like, ‘well, I better shoot it, because I haven’t shot it for awhile.’”
After Brown’s free throws with 3:44 to go, the Spartans turned it over on a backcourt violation, and a Carlos Lopez 3-pointer made it a four-point game. Taylor Euler — who made just 2-of-10 shots from the floor in the second half and 6-of-18 for the game — hit a jumper from the right wing with just under two minutes left to pull Emporia to within three, 49-46, but those points would turn out to be the Spartans’ last.
Emporia missed three 3-pointers and a jumper in the final minute-and-a-half. An intentional-foul call on Brandon Gentz on a high-flying rebound attempt inside with 41.9 seconds left, and the score 51-46, helped put the final nail in the Spartans’ coffin.
“I was going for the ball, but it’s a rough game,” Gentz said. “When you get down to it, we needed a board, and I tried to provide us one. But I got him pretty good, so it probably looked like one.”
Topeka West made enough foul shots down the stretch to seal the win, finishing 14-of-22 at the line.
“Obviously, we committed some dumb fouls, some bad fouls, we got caught in bad position to where we had to commit the fouls,” Canales said. “And they made their free throws.”
Rebounding — a weak spot that Bloomquist has stressed all year — was again a large part of the end result, as Emporia was beaten to key boards. Sophomore guard Gentz, who had seven points, said the blame for bad boardwork is on the Spartan players.
“We just need to toughen up,” Gentz said. “It’s a mental thing with us. I know we’re smaller than everyone, but right now it’s a mental thing. We don’t want it bad enough. We’ve gotta start toughening up — it’s our fault. Coach does everything he can, but it’s our fault.”
Bloomquist wants to send his senior class out with a winning record. But he doesn’t like what he’s seeing out of the Spartans, calling them “selfish” and “lazy.” And he insists he’s to blame for those qualities.
“This was a bad game. We’re a bad basketball team right now,” he said. “But I want you to realize, it’s not their fault — it’s my fault. I’ve turned this into a bad basketball team.”
Euler finished with 15 points to lead EHS, Canales had 13 and Torres had 11. Gentz was the only other Spartan to score. Brown backed North’s performance with 11 for the Chargers, seven of which came at the line in 10 attempts. Topeka West shot 55 percent (18-of-33) from the floor.
Topeka West 54, Emporia 46
Topeka West 10 13 12 19 — 54
Emporia 16 10 13 7 — 46
Topeka West (5-12, 1-9) — Selley 0-0 0-0 0, Kruger 1-6 0-0 3, Adams 1-1 3-4 5, Smith 0-1 0-2 0, North 12-16 4-6 30, Brown 2-3 7-10 11, Bailey 0-2 0-0 0, Jones 1-2 0-0 2, Lopez 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 18-33 14-22 54.
Emporia (8-9, 5-5) — Gentz 1-4 5-6 7, Huth 0-2 0-1 0, Euler 6-18 2-2 15, Torres 4-9 2-2 11, Canales 5-6 2-3 13, Essex 0-0 0-0 0, Childs 0-0 0-0 0, Jamison 0-1 0-0 0, Bartlett 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 16-41 11-14 46.
3-point goals — Topeka West 3-12 (North 2-6, Kruger 1-4, Brown 0-1, Jones 0-1), Emporia 3-16 (Canales 1-1, Euler 1-6, Torres 1-6, Gentz 0-2, Bartlett 0-1). Fouled out — Childs.
UsayULoveGod (anonymous) says...
WoW!
February 18, 2009 at 9:44 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
admireed (anonymous) says...
Time for B. to move on?
February 18, 2009 at 9:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
sportsmom (anonymous) says...
You couldn't have said it better admireed...
February 18, 2009 at 10:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )