The Emporia High boys are looking more and more like a shutdown defensive team.
Using an amoeba defense, some halfcourt zone and the occasional zone press, the Spartans have held every team they’ve played to 52 points or less while playing relatively little man to man. They did it again on Friday night, using a strong amoeba look to frustrate Shawnee Heights and senior sharpshooter Matt Kobbeman, and Taylor Euler put up 18 points to lead the Spartans to a 51-42 home win, EHS’s third straight to begin Centennial League play.
“We made some adjustments with the amoeba, and I think the amoeba confused ’em,” Spartans coach Rick Bloomquist said. “We played it well tonight, we really did. We got out into the shooters, we closed out well, we got in the passing lanes, we guarded the high post. We really did a lot of good things, and we rebounded well out of it. And then we played the 3-2 a couple of times just to switch up, just to show ’em something different.”
The Spartans got rolling offensively in the second quarter, notching 23 points for an 11-point halftime advantage. Center Greg Canales scored 10 of those second-quarter points, showing his touch around the basket and out to midrange. He used the glass on a turnaround Jumper from the left side to make it 12-6 in favor of EHS, then posted up his man, jump-stopped into the lane and hit a 10-footer to make it 19-10. Another jumper near the free throw line off a baseline pass from Bryce Childs gave EHS a 21-12 lead.
“They didn’t really match up with me inside with their big man,” said Canales, who finished with 12 points for the game. “He’s got a hurt ankle or something, so they had a shorter guy on me, and we took advantage of it.”
EHS led 29-20 as the final seconds of the first half ticked away, and Marcus Jamison put up a three from the top of the key to beat the buzzer. His shot rattled out, but Bryce Childs flew in under the basket for a tip-in almost right at the moment the buzzer sounded. The officials ruled Childs had gotten the shot off before the buzzer, giving EHS an 11-point lead and some extra fire at the break.
The Spartans lead reached 13 in the third quarter before Heights put together a quick run to pull within four points. Three-pointers by Tyler Jordan and Ryan Floberg — who finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds — and a basket inside by Josh Vossen brought the T-Birds back to within 35-31.
Euler scored on a pullup with about 30 seconds left in the third to put EHS back up by six, and Jacob Torres buried a 3-pointer about a minute into the fourth to make it 40-31. The Spartans re-established a double-digit lead when Euler penetrated from the left side and slung a bounce pass across the lane to Canales on the right baseline, who sunk a 15-footer for a 42-31 lead with about six-and-a-half minutes to go. Heights didn’t get closer than eight points after that.
“All seven games, we’ve played good defense,” Bloomquist said. “We’re keeping people from scoring. Defensively tonight, I think we had a collective effort. And I tell ’em every day, I said, ‘you’re only going to be as good as your weakest defensive player.’ Some teams of mine have bought into that, and some don’t. This team has bought into the fact that everybody has got to do the things off the ball.”
Kobbeman, one of the league’s best shooters, had just six points on 1-of-9 shooting, missing all six of his 3-point attempts.
“I told ’em before the game, Kobbeman couldn’t have a career night,” Bloomquist said. “If Kobbeman had a career night, then we were gonna be in trouble. So we did a great job on Matt. I have a lot of respect for him, and I think he got flustered a little bit.”
Euler, coming off a 3-for-17 shooting night in Tuesday night’s win at Topeka West, was 8-of-17 from the floor on Friday. Torres joined Euler and Canales in double figures with 11 points, including three shots from distance.
“I think that probably was one of the best team efforts that I’ve been a part of in my high school career,” Euler said. “It wasn’t just one, two, three guys doing it. Everybody that was on the floor at a time, all five players were playing as one team, and we played great basketball tonight, great team basketball. And I think that was the key on both ends of the floor.”
Emporia boys 51, Shawnee Heights 42
Shawnee Heights 6 14 11 11 — 42
Emporia 8 23 6 14 — 51
Shawnee Heights (3-4, 0-3) — Floberg 20, S. Vossen 0-0 1-2 1, Kobbeman 1-9 4-6 6, Jordan 2-2 2-4 7, Sparks 0-2 0-0 0, Wegener 2-7 0-0 5, Jones 0-0 1-2 1, J. Vossen 1-1 0-0 2, Nelson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 12-35 13-20 42.
Emporia (5-2, 3-0) — Gentz 0-2 0-0 0, Euler 8-17 1-2 18, Golden 1-4 2-4 4, Torres 4-6 0-0 11, Canales 6-13 0-1 12, Jamison 2-5 0-0 4, Essex 0-1 0-0 0, Childs 1-2 0-0 2, Bartlett 0-0 0-0 0, Huth 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-50 3-7 51.
3-point goals — Shawnee Heights 4-11 (Floberg 3-5, Jordan 1-1, Kobbeman 0-5), Emporia 4-17 (Torres 3-5, Euler 1-6, Gentz 0-2, , Golden 0-2, Canales 0-1, Jamison 0-1). Fouled out — None. Rebounds — Shawnee Heights 23 (Floberg 10), Emporia 23 (Canales 8). Total fouls — Shawnee Heights 13, Emporia 18.
oldscot (anonymous) says...
The amoeba probably didn't confuse them as much as the continuous moving screens that weren't being called.
January 10, 2009 at 7:48 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
spartan78 (anonymous) says...
Don't start that kind of stuff on this website. Go to prepzone.com if you want to slam on the Spartans.
January 11, 2009 at 9:07 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )