Cassondra Boston and Allie Renberg were not going to let it happen again.
When Missouri Southern cut into Emporia State’s double-digit lead, cutting it to five points with five minutes left on Wednesday night at White Auditorium, Boston and Renberg had the answer that never came on Saturday against Southwest Baptist.
Boston made a 3-pointer and Renberg scored three straight baskets to help the Lady Hornets avoid two straight home losses with an 83-70 win.
“I just think that they’re a really physical team, and they came here to out-tough us,” Boston said. “And we stepped up to the challenge and came back with a lot of fight and were physical with them. When they were trying to make a run, we stepped up on defense, made a lot of stops and kept them out of the game.”
For a half, it seemed like Saturday’s second-half collapse was the gorilla in the room for the Lady Hornets. They trailed by as many as seven early on and trailed by three at half even though they had held the Lions to 21.1 percent shooting. But nerves, 14 turnovers and making only 7-for-14 free throws kept the Lady Hornets out of the lead.
“I thought we survived the first half,” ESU coach Brandon Schneider said. “Obviously, they were really good on the offensive glass. I didn’t think we gave our best effort in terms of putting together physical box outs. We let them kind of push us under the rim on occasions and then we didn’t take care of the basketball, so they got so many more possessions than us, which is why we found ourselves behind.”
Sophia Lenard was the only reason Emporia State was even in the game. She scored 11 of her 17 points in the first half and was Emporia State’s only player who didn’t seem haunted by Saturday’s loss.
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