EHS boys lose to top-ranked Hayden
Brent Maycock - Special to the Gazette
Saturday, January 31, 2009
This was more like it.
After two straight losses last week at the Ralph Miller Classic in Chanute, Emporia boys basketball coach Rick Bloomquist “blitzed his team pretty good.”
“I was disappointed in the Andover Central game and the (Olathe North) game,” Bloomquist said of the Spartans’ two straight losses to finish the tournament. “But this one, I wasn’t disappointed in.”
Nor should Bloomquist and the Spartans have been Friday night, even though the end result was a 68-54 loss to Centennial League rival Hayden. The Spartans gave the No. 1 team in Class 4A and the No. 2 team in the state all it wanted for three and a half quarters.
“They played us tough,” Hayden senior T.J. McGreevy said. “We had some guys hit some big shots for us.”
Count McGreevy as one of the Wildcats that ultimately thwarted Emporia’s upset bid. After scoring just two points in the first three quarters, McGreevy burned the Spartans for 13 points in the fourth quarter as Hayden pulled away from a tight game.
Emporia was right in it until McGreevy came up big. Down 44-38 at the end of the third quarter after Hayden got two late 3-pointers from bench players Michael Johnson and Kyle Beck, the Spartans hit their first six shots of the fourth quarter. Greg Canales scored seven straight points to start the period and then Taylor Euler sandwiched driving
layups around a Jacob Torres’ basket with his second bucket cutting the deficit to 52-51 with 4:46 to play.
Then McGreevy took over. He flanked a pair of Kurt Walker free throws with inside scores and added a pair of free throws in a 10-0 Hayden run that pushed the Wildcat lead to 62-52 with 1:30 to play.
After starting the quarter white-hot, Emporia went cold, missing its final eight shots from the floor.
Despite the finish, Bloomquist liked what he saw from his team.
“I was curious to see how we’d respond after those two losses,” he said. “I saw a pretty good basketball team out there. We still have a few things to fix offensively. The key was we missed some wide-open shots and if we make those down the stretch, they don’t get that separation.”
Emporia made some big shots early. Hayden came out hot, in particular Walker and Jeff Reid. The Wildcat duo combined to make 11-of-14 shots, including 6-of-8 3-pointers, and 28 points in the first half alone.
But even with Hayden hitting 15-of-23 shots in the opening half, the Wildcats couldn’t shake the Spartans, who made 5-of-9 3 pointers in one stretch and built a 27-23 lead early in the second quarter. Euler hit a pair of 3-pointers, while Torres, Brandon Gentz and Bryce Childs each added treys.
Euler’s last 3-pointer at the 5:43 mark of the second quarter staked the Spartans to their biggest lead, 25-20, but Reid answered with a 3-pointer. After Emporia regained a 27-23 lead on a basket from Euler, Hayden finished the half on a 13-2 burst with Reid nailing a 3-pointer with 36 seconds left in the half for a 36-29 halftime lead.
Emporia clamped down in the second half, though, harassing the Wildcats into missing 13 of their first 14 shots of the half as Emporia tied it at 38-38. But Johnson and Beck hit their big 3-pointers off the bench late in the quarter to restore a six-point lead and the Wildcats also got a 3-pointer off the bench from Kyle McGreevy early in the fourth.
“For the most part, I thought we played a very good basketball team a very good game,” Bloomquist said. “We don’t match up with them at all, so we took a gamble as far as making some other kids beat us. ... A couple of those kids hit some big shots when we weren’t guarding them. That wasn’t my kids’ fault, that was the game plan.”
Euler led the Spartans with 20 points, but finished 9-of-21 from the field. Torres and Canales each added 12 points. Reid and Walker tied for high honors for Hayden with 19 points apiece.
Hayden boys 68, Emporia 54
Emporia 18 11 9 16 — 54
Hayden 18 18 8 24 — 68
Emporia (6-7, 3-3) — Gentz 2-8 0-0 5, Essex 0-2 0-0 0, Euler 9-21 0-0 20, Torres 2-7 7-9 12, Canales 5-13 1-1 12, Childs 2-2 0-0 5, Jamison 0-1 0-0 0, Huth 0-0 0-0 0, Bartlett 0-4 0-0 0, Naab 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-58 8-10 54.
Hayden (12-0, 6-0) — Walker 5-9 6-6 19, Reid 8-12 0-0 19, T. McGreevy 4-6 5-8 13, Rabe 0-6 0-0 0, Hund 3-7 0-0 6, Johnson 1-2 0-0 3, Morrow 0-0 0-0 0, Strobel 0-1 0-0 0, Beck 1-1 2-2 5, K. McGreevy 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 23-45 13-16 68.
3-point goals — Emporia 6-23 (Euler 2-9, Gentz 1-3, Torres 1-4, Canales 1-2, Childs 1-1, Bartlett 0-4); Hayden 9-15 (Walker 3-6, Reid 3-4, Johnson 1-2, Beck 1-1, K. McGreevy 1-1, T. McGreevy 0-1). Rebounds — Emporia 18 (Canales 7); Hayden 32 (T. McGreevy 12). Total fouls — Emporia 17, Hayden 11. Fouled out — None.