MARYVILLE, MO. — Earlier this week, an observer on press row asked the question of the Lady Hornets: “How deep do they go?”
For the second straight road game, Emporia State’s depth overwhelmed an opponent. On Saturday in a 104-86 win at Northwest Missouri, the Lady Hornets had seven players score in double figures, led by Sophia Lenard’s 19 points.
“We’re a good team,” Lenard said. “We have a lot of good players.”
Fort Hays State and Northwest Missouri can attest to that. Emporia State has won the first two games of its three-game road trip by an average of 33.5 points per game, and, really, Saturday’s win wasn’t as close as the final score.
The Lady Hornets went ahead 104-68 with 3:56 left and the Bearcats ended the game on a 18-0 run when, as ESU coach Brandon Schneider called it, the Lady Hornets had “called off the dogs.”
Here’s the scary part for the rest of the MIAA looking up at the fifth-ranked Lady Hornets (16-2, 10-1) in first place, several of their players are finding their form midway through the conference season.
On Wednesday, it was Andrea Leiker who shot her way out of a mini-shooting slump. On Saturday, Lenard and Jamie Augustyn also broke out of their own mini-slumps.
Lenard had made only 2-of-11 shots in her previous two games and played a season-low 13 minutes against Fort Hays State, scoring a season-low two points. She also struggled in the first half against the Bearcats, missing all three of her field goal attempts, and she was one of several players Schneider was disappointed with in the first half on the defensive end.
“We were just atrocious defensively in the first half,” Schneider said. “We just had some people that we typically really count on a great deal to play well just not mentally ready to play, just in a fog and consequently, it really hurt our team’s performance on that end of the floor.”
Lenard bounced back and played a key role in helping Emporia State blow out Northwest Missouri after leading by only five at half. She scored 15 points in the second half, made all three of her field goal attempts, made 9-of-10 free throws (she was 13-of-14 for the game), had six assists and three steals.
During a 15-0 run near the beginning of the second half, Lenard had a steal and layup, a putback on an Ida Edwards’ missed free throw, and then made four straight free throws, scoring eight of the final nine points of the run.
“We made a change at halftime, decided to put her on the point guard and kind of give our defense a little bit of a spark,” Schneider said. “... I thought that really got her going and consequently got our team going.”
Augustyn’s slump really wasn’t so mini. She entered Saturday’s game shooting 11.1 percent during the conference season and she was 3-for-22 from beyond the arc. Augustine made a career-high five 3-pointers against the Bearcats, with four treys coming in the second half.
“I needed a game where I could get back in the groove,” she said. “I thank Brandon for some shooting tips he gave me the other day.”
Schneider watched film of Augustyn’s shot during the week and told her she needed to work on her follow-through and balance.
“For a 3-point shooter, it’s difficult sometimes when that’s kind of your role, and it can be disheartening when you miss — you go 0-for-3 or 0-for-4 — and you don’t feel like you’re contributing,” Schneider said. “And that’s not necessarily the case because there’s other parts to the game, but I think that’s how she felt.”
Augustyn felt much better about her performance on Saturday, and Schneider has to be feeling much better about his bench, which has been much better since being called out by the coach after a poor performance two weeks ago at Pittsburg State.
The ESU bench outscored Northwest Missouri 40-25. Lacy Corker scored nine points and had five assists off the bench, playing several different positions because of foul trouble for the ESU post players. Alli Volkens came off the bench for the second straight game and scored 11 points and had five rebounds before fouling out in only 14 minutes.
“During practice, we’re really physical, me and (Allie) Renberg back and forth, and it’s hard to come into a game and try to back down a little bit,” Volkens said. “I need to be smarter.”
All five of ESU’s starters scored in double figures, led by Lenard’s 19 points. Cassondra Boston scored 13, and Renberg, Edwards and Leiker all scored 11.
And to answer the question posed of how deep are the Lady Hornets: Schneider’s rotation is at nine right now, all nine players who played more than 14 minutes scored on Saturday, and the Lady Hornets are about to get even deeper. Reserve forward Bree Kisner did not play on Saturday, but she was in uniform for the first time since injuring her foot against Missouri Western on Dec. 6.
Saturday at Bearcat Arena
Emporia State 49 55 — 104
NW Missouri 44 42 — 86
EMPORIA STATE (16-2, 10-1 MIAA)
Lenard 3-6 13-14 19, Augustyn 5-8 0-0 15, Boston 6-11 0-0 13, Edwards 4-11 3-4 11, Volkens 3-3 5-7 11, Leiker 3-8 2-4 11, Renberg 4-7 2-4 10, Corker 2-4 4-4 9, Miller 2-2 1-1 5, Tucker 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 32-61 30-38 104.
NORTHWEST MISSOURI (6-12, 2-9)
Brue 8-12 6-11 23, McElroy 9-16 5-7 23, Uriell 3-8 4-4 10, Henry 4-4 1-1 10, Roach 2-8 1-2 5, Burton 1-7 2-3 4, Martin 1-2 0-0 3, Helzer 1-1 0-0 3, Vandevender 1-3 1-2 3, Nyquist 1-2 0-1 2, Gordon 0-0 0-0 0, Maberry 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-63 20-31 86.
3-point goals — Emporia State 10-19 (Augustyn 5-8, Leiker 3-5, Boston 1-2, Corker 1-2, Tucker 0-1, Lenard 0-1), NW Missouri 4-12 (Helzer 1-1, Martin 1-2, Brue 1-1, Henry 1-1, Burton 0-3, Roach 0-1, Uriell 0-3). Fouled out — Emporia State: Volkens; NW Missouri: None. Rebounds — Emporia State 38 (Renberg 7), NW Missouri 32 (Brue, McElroy 7). Assists — Emporia State 19 (Lenard 7), NW Missouri 14 (Martin 4). Total fouls — Emporia State 24, NW Missouri 26. Att. — 1,066.