During the first half Wednesday night at White Auditorium, it would have been wise to cover the eyes of the kids in attendance. Emporia State and Pittsburg State provided a crash course on how not to play.
The Hornets played with urgency — not necessarily a bad thing — as they tried to bounce back from their collapse at Missouri Southern. But their rush to recover resulted in an 0-for-7 performance from beyond the arc, and the Gorillas were bad enough to only lead by three at half.
“We were settling for the first thing we could sling up there,” ESU coach David Moe said. “And that comes from the tension of the little hangover effect of how we ended the last game.”
At halftime, the light bulb must have gone off for the Hornets, and they put on a clinic in a 58-point second half. They played in-your-face defense, took good shots and made them — 9-of-10 from 3-point range — and they came away with the best cure for their Southern hangover, an 84-74 win.
Emporia State (16-9, 10-8 MIAA) entered Wednesday’s game in must-win mode. To keep its NCAA tournament hopes alive, Moe said his team needed to win its final three games after blowing a 23-point lead at Southern. He also said it needs to win at least one game in the MIAA tournament on top of that.
With the win, the Hornets need just one win, or a loss by Northwest Missouri, to qualify for the MIAA tournament.
But in fifth place in the conference and a half-game out of third place, making the MIAA tournament is essentially a foregone conclusion. The Hornets are just trying to avoid limping in.
“When you give a game away like we did, it’s easy to say, ‘shake it off,’ but you still remember what happened, and you need to get that out of your system and get ready to go the next time out,” Moe said.
Moe had three days to get his team’s mindset right, and it took a half, but they responded as he has come to expect them to.
“For the most part, these guys have gone back and looked at themselves and been able to fix things,” Moe said. “And that’s what’s allowed us to continue to get better.”
The Hornets’ ability to bounce back from their lowest lows has become their identity. They’ve followed their three worst blowout losses with wins, and now followed their most embarrassing loss with a win.
“It just shows where we’re at,” ESU guard Lamar Wilbern said. “We’ve been fighting through adversity all year, and that’s been our saying, and I think we showed that tonight.”
The template for fighting through adversity must include turning up the pressure defensively and making shots. That’s what worked at the beginning of the second half, and helped the Hornets put the Southern loss behind them.
They opened the second half on a 17-3 run, forcing the Gorillas into four missed shots and two turnovers during the run. The Hornets scored on seven of their first eight possessions, including hitting their first three 3-pointers.
“That’s why we shot 9-for-10, because we got stops and that kind of demoralized the other team, and so then you get open looks and it just opens the game up for you,” Wilbern said.
The Hornets had also played great defense in the first half against Southern, which helped build their 23-point lead, but against Pitt State, they didn’t let up.
“Our defense was good, and our intensity picked up, it seemed like,” ESU forward Adam Holthaus said, “and everything just fell into place.”
While the ESU guards made their 3-pointers in the second half, it was all set up by Holthaus. The sophomore big man was the only thing going right in the first half when he scored nine points and kept ESU in the game.
The ESU guards continued to find Holthaus inside in the second half; he tied his career high of 19 points. The guards also got the ball inside by penetrating into the paint, and then kicking the ball out for 3-pointers when the defense collapsed.
“When you’re attacking the paint inside-out, (it) just makes shots easier,” Moe said. “We were able to get to the line, we were able to get layups and we were able to get open threes, and that’s just a huge difference. You’ve got to at least attempt to attack the basket. You can’t just run around and dribble down the floor and jack up a contested three.”
Wilbern, Tim Niles, Robert Moores and Jordan Stout all had two 3-pointers in the second half, and Dustin Andrews also knocked in a three. Wilbern, who’s been battling the flu the last couple of weeks, broke out of a scoring slump — he had a season-low five points at Southern — and he scored 16 of his 19 points in the second half.
The Hornets have a week off to get healthy and recover from a dramatic week. They travel to Washburn next Wednesday for a game that should have MIAA seeding implications.
“Hopefully this will provide some momentum,” Wilbern said. “We need it. Every game is becoming more and more important, and hopefully this is what we need to get us over the hump.”
Wednesday at White Auditorium
Pittsburg State 29 45 — 74
Emporia State 26 58 — 84
PITTSBURG STATE (10-14, 5-12 MIAA)
Taylor 7-18 4-6 20, Stukes 5-8 2-3 12, McKinnie 4-7 1-1 11, Grace 5-6 1-2 11, Smith 3-6 2-2 10, Magana 2-8 0-0 6, Ivory 2-2 0-0 4, Rogers 0-0 0-0 0, Wilson 0-1 0-0 0, Campbell 0-0 0-0 0, Quick 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-56 10-14 74.
EMPORIA STATE (16-9, 10-8)
Holthaus 6-9 7-8 19, Wilbern 4-11 9-11 19, Niles 4-7 3-4 13, Moores 4-8 2-5 12, Box 4-10 0-0 8, Stout 2-4 0-0 6, Andrews 1-2 2-2 5, Moore 1-1 0-0 2, Allen 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 26-54 23-30 84.
3-point goals — Pittsburg State 8-15 (Smith 2-4, McKinnie 2-4, Taylor 2-4, Magana 2-3), Emporia State 9-17 (Wilbern 2-3, Moores 2-3, Niles 2-4, Stout 2-2, Andrews 1-2, Allen 0-1, Box 0-2). Fouled out — Pittsburg State: Stukes, Magana; Emporia State: None. Rebounds — Pittsburg State 27 (Grace 10), Emporia State 32 (Wilbern 9). Assists — Pittsburg State 16 (McKinnie 4), Emporia State 13 (Wilbern 7). Total fouls — Pittsburg State 26, Emporia State 18. Att. — 2,008.