White Auditorium fell silent — Brandon Schneider’s yelling the only sounds coming from the old building — and the Emporia State women stood in their huddle and stared at their coach with blank, emotionless faces.
It was a look of shock. Shocked that their 12-point lead had been erased in 3 minutes, 30 seconds. Shocked that they were losing to Southwest Baptist — a team with one conference win — at home.
The shock never wore off, as the Lady Hornets played rattled down the stretch, and the Bearcats pulled out an 86-73 upset win to give the ESU women their first conference loss.
Sitting in a conference room minutes after the loss, Andrea Leiker struggled to answer when asked what had gone wrong in the final 13 minutes against SBU when Emporia State was outscored 46-18.
“I feel like maybe they just played a little bit harder than we did. We couldn’t get anything going, couldn’t get stops, just didn’t have any...” Leiker paused for a couple seconds — at a loss for words. “I don’t know, any intensity I guess.”
Leiker wasn’t alone. It was difficult to come up with an explanation for how this happened.
The Lady Hornets led by as many as 16 and led by 10 at halftime. They had not played their best game, but they were in control. No one — other than their coach, maybe — thought anything but a 12th double-digit victory would be the end result.
“I was concerned just because of how soft we were playing,” Schneider said. “Even in the first half, we didn’t finish anything around the rim against kids that are three to four inches smaller than us. We get outrebounded by a team that is 11th in the standings in rebounding margin. Just lacked a lot of mental and physical toughness.”
Still, Schneider had to believe his team would at least win the game. They led by 15 with 13 minutes left and held a 12-point lead after Ida Edwards made a layup with 9:58 left.
“We’ve struggled all year long with having any type of killer instinct and being able to hold onto any lead,” Schneider said. “When you continue to perform in that manner without correcting it, eventually it’s going to catch up and bite you.”
The Bearcats caught up and moved past ESU during a 13-0 run, scoring on five of six possessions and taking a one-point lead on a Courtney Heady 3-pointer.
Emporia State would finally answer, ending the SBU run and taking back the lead on a Jamie Augustyn 3-pointer.
Rachel Graves took the lead back for SBU, 65-62, on a 3-pointer.
Augustyn again answered with another 3-pointer to tie the game. She alone seemed to be delaying the inevitable.
After Allie Renberg tied the game at 67 at the 3:35 mark, the Lady Hornets would go 2 minutes, 35 seconds without a field goal and SBU went on a 13-2 run to put the game away.
“We relaxed on a defense a little bit,” Edwards said. “They caught us relaxing and made shots.”
The Bearcats shooting did improve in the second half. They shot 66.7 percent, compared to just 32.3 percent in the first half. They made 5-of-8 3-pointers after making only 2-of-11 in the first half.
As the Bearcats heated up, the Lady Hornets went cold. They missed 9-of-11 3-pointers in the second half. Leiker led all scorers with 13 in the first half, and she scored only one point in the second. Leading scorer Cassondra Boston scored only two points in the second half and starting center Alli Volkens was held scoreless.
“We had some players who were just never in it and they drug others down,” Schneider said. “We had some people who started off the game OK, but we had some key players who didn’t play with a lot of energy, didn’t play with a lot of heart and somehow drug the entire team down.”
When the Lady Hornets shots quit falling, their shoulders slumped and their defense suffered.
“It’s really a sickening feeling when you look out there and see a team playing harder than your team on your home floor,” Schneider said. “We just didn’t play with much pride.”
Amidst all the doom and gloom, Emporia State did get some good news on Saturday night. Washburn also lost its first conference game at home, losing in overtime to Central Missouri. The ESU and WU losses created a logjam at the top with the two teams tied with Pittsburg State for the conference lead at 5-1 and Central Missouri a 1/2-game back at 4-1.
But even a Washburn loss couldn’t erase the shock and disappointment for Emporia State.
“We didn’t want to lose a game,” Edwards said. “We were expecting to go (undefeated) in the conference. It’s still disappointing.”
Saturday at White Auditorium
Southwest Baptist 32 54 — 86
Emporia State 42 31 — 73
SOUTHWEST BAPTIST (5-7, 2-3 MIAA)
Creed 6-17 5-5 18, Gilreath 4-5 6-8 17, Shewmaker 3-6 7-8 14, Graves 4-6 4-4 13, Sanford 3-4 3-4 9, Heady 3-4 1-2 8, Garrett 3-7 1-2 7, Gatschenberger 0-6 0-0 0, Carson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-55 27-33 86.
EMPORIA STATE (11-2, 5-1 MIAA)
Lenard 6-12 2-2 14, Leiker 5-14 3-4 14, Edwards 6-11 1-2 13, Boston 3-13 0-0 8, Renberg 3-6 1-2 7, Miller 2-4 3-3 7, Augustyn 2-5 0-0 6, Volkens 1-2 2-3 4, Corker 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-67 12-16 73.
3-point goals — Southwest Baptist 7-19 (Gilreath 3-4, Heady 1-1, Graves 1-2, Creed 1-6, Shewmaker 1-2, Gatschenberger 0-4), Emporia State 5-20 (Augustyn 2-5,
Boston 2-8, Leiker 1-6, Lenard 0-1). Fouled out — Southwest Baptist: None; Emporia State: None. Rebounds — Southwest Baptist 35 (Creed 9), Emporia State 32 (Edwards 8). Assists — Southwest Baptist 15 (Shewmaker 6), Emporia State 18 (Boston 8). Total fouls — Southwest Baptist 15, Emporia State 22. Att. — 2,333.