TOPEKA — Emporia High’s full-court press — the one the Lady Spartans had been working on over holiday break — overwhelmed Topeka West from the opening tip. By halftime, with Emporia holding a 52-9 lead, the only interesting question remaining was how many points the Spartans would end up with — and later, how many players could get on the board.
As it turned out, 11 different players got in the books for the Spartans before they finished off an 85-26 drubbing that moved EHS to 5-1 and 3-0 in the Centennial League.
The Spartans are a good bet to prey on any team that takes care of the ball as poorly as the Chargers did on Tuesday night. Constantly trapped along the sideline, Topeka West turned the ball over 10 times in the first quarter alone, helping the Spartans run out to a 29-7 lead.
“We got pretty good pressure on the ball, rotated relatively well,” EHS coach Bill Nienstedt said. “In fairness, I don’t think (Topeka West) played particularly well, but I thought our pressure was very effective there, especially early on in the first quarter.”
After West got the game’s first basket, Lindy Arndt poured in Emporia’s first 10 points with a mixture of midrange jumpers and drives on her way to 18 points in the first half and 20 for the game. Her drive from the top of the key off a baseline kickout from Sarah Kolmer made it 10-2 EHS, and the Emporia run reached 14-0 before West scored again.
Emporia continued building its lead in the second quarter, not allowing Topeka West any easy shots, or even any easy trips down the floor. A layin by Hilary Heinrichs made it 41-7, and West didn’t score its only basket of the period until just under two minutes remained. In addition to Arndt’s 18 first-half points, Lexi Hileman had 11 at half, and Amber Miller had eight points off the bench. Arndt made 8-of-9 shots from the floor for the game.
“The rest of my teammates played really tough defense and created those turnovers, and Alli (Armitage) pushed the ball really well,” Arndt said. “And Alli always seems to find me when I’m open, so I gotta give credit to them for that.”
In the second half, the Spartans got to work on their zone defense and got plenty of players in the game for scoring opportunities. Courtney Waldner finished with 10 second-half points, and Kolmer, Miller and Ashley Leihsing all finished with eight. Leihsing started the game at two-guard in place of Rachelle VanGundy, who was ill. Little-used Megan McRell, Taylor Elbe and Bailey Sosa all got in the scorebook, and McRell knocked down a 3-pointer.
“It was pretty exciting to have everybody on the bench play, and get some playing time,” Waldner said.
Nienstedt said it’s hard, when things come as easy as they did Tuesday night, to see how much payoff there had been from the work over the holidays.
“I’m not sure we were real sharp offensively at the start of the ballgame,” he said. “But we have a couple of kids that are pretty good at running the floor and a couple of others that are really good at pitching the ball ahead, and when we got that going, obviously that, I think, turned the momentum of the game.”
Tuesday at Topeka West
Emporia 29 23 18 15 — 85
Topeka West 7 2 6 11 — 26
Emporia (5-1, 3-0) — Armitage 3-6 0-0 7, Leihsing 4-6 0-0 8, Arndt 8-9 4-5 20, Heinrichs 1-5 2-2 4, Hileman 4-8 3-3 11, Kolmer 3-7 2-2 8, Scheve 0-0 0-0 0, Miller 3-5 2-2 8, Waldner 4-7 2-2 10, McRell 2-5 0-0 5, Elbe 0-2 2-4 2, Sosa 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 33-61 17-20 85.
Topeka West (1-4, 0-2) — Velez 1-3 0-0 2, McMahon 2-10 0-0 5, Short 0-4 0-0 0, Okoronkwo 1-6 0-2 2, Brooks 1-4 0-0 3, Lutz 3-4 0-0 9, Perry 1-5 0-2 3, Lopez 0-1 0-0 0, Hartke 1-3 0-1 2, Cameron 0-0 0-0 0, Talbert 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 10-40 0-5 26.
3-point goals — Emporia 2-7 (Armitage 1-3, McRell 1-3, Miller 0-1), Topeka West 6-19 (Lutz 3-4, McMahon 1-6, Brooks 1-4, Perry 1-4, Hartke 0-1). Total fouls — Emporia 6, Topeka West 17. Fouled out — Okoronkwo.