Two possibilities existed for how the Emporia High girls might bust out of the gate for this year’s Glacier’s Edge Tournament on Thursday night after an 11-day break from game action. Such a long layoff meant the Lady Spartans were raring to go, and it stood to reason they’d be at one of two extremes.
“We knew that we were either gonna start off slow,” center Lexi Hileman said, “or start off with a bang.”
Offensively, it was the former — the Lady Spartans were rusty and took their time to start getting the ball in the hoop — but wire to wire, they kept Wichita North from netting easy scores. And once EHS overcame some early turnovers and worked its way into good shots, the third-seeded Spartans were on their way to an easy 46-23 victory to move on to face second-seeded Blue Valley in tonight’s semifinal action.
Hileman led the way for Emporia, scoring 10 in each half for a career-high 20 points. She put up points in about every way imaginable using every skill she has, and she continued to display the results of her work at the foul line, going 4-for-5 from the stripe.
“Not playing for (11) days, it sucked,” Hileman said, “but I was ready to come out and play hard and show this team what I could do...”
Emporia led just 5-3 as the first quarter ticked into its last couple of minutes, but the Spartans turned it on to grab a 10-point lead by the end of the period. Hileman rebounded a missed three by Rachelle VanGundy and scored to make it 7-3. Two free throws and a baseline layin by Lindy Arndt gave the Spartans an eight-point lead, and Ashley Leihsing drove the left baseline for a nine-footer just before the quarter buzzer to make it 13-3.
Early in the second quarter, Hilary Heinrichs found Hileman with a crisp bounce pass through Wichita North’s zone, and Hileman scored on the baseline. Then she got isolated on the left block and pivoted back into the lane for a score. VanGundy pumped in a 3-pointer with about a minute-and-a-half left to make it 22-7, and the Spartans led 24-9 at half.
“I thought our kids were really patient about letting the game come to them,” EHS coach Bill Nienstedt said, “and not getting discouraged by those early turnovers.”
Emporia showed good ball movement early in the second half when Alli Armitage caught a pass on the break and delivered it quickly to a running Hileman to make it 26-9. The Spartans’ lead grew to as much as 33-10 in the third, and Wichita North couldn’t manage a third-quarter field goal until Cayleigh Beshears’ 3-pointer with less than a minute left made it 33-13. In the fourth, Hileman added two more points at the line and two more when she scored off a pitch-ahead by Arndt with 5:28 to go. Emporia led by as many as 25 in the closing minutes.
Overall, the Spartans did a fine job of not looking past Wichita North to Blue Valley, which had already crushed Leavenworth earlier in the evening by a 65-33 score. Six-foot post Liz Stinson led Blue Valley with 17 points. The Spartans (7-4) and Tigers (9-3) tip off tonight at 8:30 p.m.
“We watched a little bit of their game, and it looked like they had good ball pressure,” Arndt said. “... But if we play like we did tonight and like we did in practice, we’ll be all right.”
In Thursday’s other first-round matchups, top-seeded Olathe East easily beat eighth-seeded Wyandotte 75-18, and fourth-seeded Manhattan defeated fifth-seeded Seaman 54-43. Olathe East will take on Manhattan in today’s other semifinal at 7 p.m. Preceding that game will be the consolation-bracket matchups: Wyandotte-Seaman at 4 p.m. and Wichita North-Leavenworth at 5:30 p.m.
Emporia 46, Wichita North 23
Wichita North 3 6 4 10 — 23
Emporia 13 11 9 13 — 46
Wichita North — Gutierrez 0 2-2 2, Dennis 1 6-8 8, Beshears 2 0-0 5, Rosales 2 0-0 4, Wyatt 0 0-0 0, Tyler 0 0-0 0, Williams 1 0-0 2, Stewert 1 0-0 2. Totals 7 8-10 23.
Emporia (7-4) — Armitage 2 0-0 5, Miller 0 0-0 0, Arndt 2 4-4 8, Heinrichs 0 1-2 1, Hileman 8 4-5 20, Leihsing 1 0-0 2, Scheve 0 0-0 0, Kolmer 0 4-8 4, Waldner 1 1-2 3, Elbe 0 0-0 0, McRell 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 14-21 46.
3-point goals — Wichita North 1 (Beshears), Emporia 2 (VanGundy, Armitage). Fouled out — None.