If there was one moment that symbolized the 104-69 beatdown Southwest Baptist gave Emporia State on Saturday at White Auditorium, it happened late in the first half, when SBU had seven offensive rebounds in one possession.
Playing their third game in six days, the Hornets looked tired as they lunged for the ball.
Somehow, the Bearcats didn’t score, but the damage had already been done.
“I didn’t feel like we fatigued. I felt like we got demoralized and hung our heads,” ESU coach David Moe said. “They got to every loose ball and we continued to look lost all night.”
The third-ranked Bearcats wore down the Hornets, playing a deep rotation that had 10 players play more than 15 minutes.
“I know I was tired towards the end of the first half,” Dustin Andrews said. “They had like seven rebounds in one possession. That’s not an excuse because you’re tired. I think some of us were tired, but you’ve got to push through that if you want to be good.”
Andrews was one of the few bright spots for the Hornets. He scored a career-high 13 points and held MIAA leading scorer Matt Rogers to a season-low nine points.
Rogers, a 6-foot-11 junior, had scouts from the Charlotte Bobcats in attendance to watch him play. Andrews, giving up eight inches, had Rogers noticeably frustrated and never let the big man get comfortable.
The rest of the Bearcats had an easier go of it. SBU had seven players score in double figures, including four off the bench.
“We made every player they had look like an all-league player,” Moe said.
The Hornets came into the game in second place in the MIAA and with a chance to move into first with a win. They played with energy early and stayed with SBU in the first five minutes and trailed by only four after Lamar Wilbern made a floater in the lane with 14:59 left in the first half.
Then the Bearcats went on a 20-4 run, and the Hornets never really recovered.
“We weren’t prepared to compete at the level we needed to compete at against a team like that,” Moe said. “... Once we stared getting run over, we didn’t have anything left. We had no answers.”
Trying to get back in the game, the ESU guards often abandoned ball movement and tried to go one-on-one against the Bearcats. Wilbern, known as the most competitive Hornet, tried to pull his team back in the game by himself at times. He scored 21 points, but he took a season-high 24 shots.
“For us, when we face adversity, it’s just dribble, dribble, shoot. Dribble, dribble, shoot,” Moe said. “When that happens against a team as explosive as this, you end up getting what we got, and that was a thumping.”
When the Hornets did get good shots that they usually make — especially at home — it appeared that their tired legs led to misses. The Bearcats, meanwhile, shot better as the game wore on, making 9-of-10 3-pointers in the second half.
“I think we had a lot of great looks, we just didn’t make them,” Wilbern said. “And then they capitalized on anything we did wrong and we didn’t capitalize on anything they did wrong.”
Despite everything that went wrong on Saturday, the Hornets only fell one spot back in the MIAA standings and are tied with Washburn for third place at 4-2.
The Hornets have a chance on Wednesday at home against No. 10 Missouri Southern to put the SBU loss behind them and move back into a tie for second place.
“We sat around and felt sorry for ourselves during the game and got blasted,” Moe said. “You sit around for two or three days and feel sorry for yourself, and you’re going to get hammered again come Wednesday. I think we’ve got a chance. I didn’t want to get embarrassed like this, but we did. We’ve got to move on.”
Saturday at White Auditorium
Southwest Baptist 51 53 — 104
Emporia State 30 39 — 69
SOUTHWEST BAPTIST (12-0, 5-0 MIAA)
Kovacevich 7-13 0-0 16, Harris, 6-8 2-2 14, Dougherty 4-4 2-3 13, Mardis 4-4 0-0 12, Clemons 5-6 1-1 12, Harris 4-9 0-0 11, Brock 3-4 4-5 10, Rogers 3-5 2-2 9, Burgette 1-4 2-2 4, Jo. Tiemeyer 0-6 3-4 3, Ja. Tiemeyer 0-0 0-0 0, Gordon 0-0 0-0 0, Brown 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 37-65 16-19 104.
EMPORIA STATE (10-3, 4-2)
Wilbern 9-24 0-0 21, Andrews 5-9 0-0 13, Moores 4-8 2-2 10, Ping 4-7 0-0 8, Allen 3-5 0-0 6, Holthaus 2-8 0-0 4, Niles 1-7 0-0 2, Boswell 1-4 0-0 2, Box 1-4 0-0 2, Moore 0-1 1-2 1, Pyle 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-77 3-4 69.
3-point goals — Southwest Baptist 14-24 (Mardis 4-4, Dougherty 3-3, Harris 3-6, Kovacevich 2-4, Rogers 1-2, Clemons 1-2, Brown 0-2, Burgette 0-1), Emporia State 6-14 (Wilbern 3-6, Andrews 3-3, Holthaus 0-1, Niles 0-3, Box 0-1). Fouled out — Southwest Baptist: None, Emporia State: None. Rebounds — Southwest Baptist 44 (Clemons 9), Emporia State 28 (Ping 6). Assists — Southwest Baptist 26 (Brock 4), Emporia State 14 (Moores 5). Total fouls — Southwest Baptist 15, Emporia State 14. Att. — 2,531.