NEWTON — In basketball-season time, December was an eternity ago. Bryce Childs was living — and scoring, and passing and rebounding — proof in Emporia High’s substate opener against Newton.
The junior forward who Emporia coach Rick Bloomquist says was “in the basement of my doghouse” back during the season’s first month was running with his teammates at the front of the dogsled on Thursday night. His contributions at both ends of the floor — he scored seven points and tied Greg Canales for a game-high with five rebounds — helped spark the Spartans to a 41-25 win over Newton, sending Emporia (12-9) to Saturday night’s substate final against Hutchinson in Salina.
“I just finished telling Bryce in the locker room, ‘Back in December, I would never have thought that you were playing as well as you were gonna play right now,’” Bloomquist said. “And it’s all Bryce. Because Bryce is the one that’s made the change, he’s the one that made the adjustment, he’s the one that basically took the challenge.”
Other guys scored more for the Spartans — Canales had 13, and Taylor Euler had 11 — and EHS’s array of constantly changing zone defenses took an outstanding team effort to hold Newton to five first-half points and less than half the Railers’ season scoring average. But perhaps no Spartan did more different things to help his team on Thursday night than Childs.
He hit jumpers — including a 17-footer to open the scoring, getting Emporia going on a 10-0 start. He grabbed those five boards, none more impressive than a high leap for an underhanded tip-in off a missed three by Brandon Gentz that made it 17-3 in favor of EHS. Right before that, Childs went to the floor for a loose ball in the backcourt, corralled it and called timeout to preserve possession.
“Coach has just been telling me all year, ‘You’ve gotta go to the boards, you’ve gotta play defense,’” Childs said. “And he told me that he wanted me to show ’em up by doing that. And I just played my hardest out there, try to make things happen for our team.”
“Back in December, we didn’t know he could rebound,” Canales said with a smile. “So it’s kind of nice to have him out there, especially with Jacob Golden out and everything.”
But the Spartans’ fluctuations from one zone defense to another were probably the game’s biggest overall key. Newton’s guards chucked threes at almost every opportunity in the first half — some open, some not so much — and made just 1-of-10 from beyond the arc and 2-of-19 from the floor before the half. As a result, Emporia went to the locker room with a commanding 17-5 lead. Ugly-looking score, but things were really only ugly on one end of the floor — the offensive end for Newton.
“We kept switching the zones — switch, switch, switch,” Canales said. “We figured out what was working. Our 1-3-1 worked, our 3-2 was working really well, and they never got in a flow. I don’t think throughout the whole game, they ever got in a flow on the offensive end.”
A little less than three minutes into the second half, Canales deflected a Railers pass near the free throw line, and the ball came to Euler near the top of the key. He drove the right side of the lane, got fouled as he hung in midair and laid in the shot with 5:02 to go. His free throw made it 24-7 Spartans.
Canales added another and-one play when he tossed in a baseline jump hook off a drive-and-kick from Jacob Torres. Canales’ free throw got the shooter’s roll to make it 27-11 EHS at the end of the third quarter, and a Childs jumper and two Torres free throws made it 31-11 in the first minute of the fourth. Emporia led by as many as 22 before the game ended, and the Spartans held the Railers (13-8) to 25 percent shooting for the game.
“This game’s another showing of how (a combo defense) can really confuse a team,” Euler said. “They’re gonna have to change their offense with every zone that we run.”
Torres scored seven second-half points to equal Childs’ point output. Newton big man Jake Reinhardt led the Railers with eight.
After the Feb. 17 loss to Topeka West, Bloomquist was down on his team and was just hoping to finish the season with a winning record. Now, after a refocused commitment to team basketball, the Spartans will be back at State again if they can win Saturday’s 5 p.m. substate final at the Salina Central gym. Hutchinson (10-11) beat Great Bend 60-48 Thursday.
“I’ve always envisioned it, because I always knew this was what we could do,” Bloomquist said. “But two weeks ago, I was questioning whether I could get ’em to do it. ... I knew we could play like this. That wasn’t the issue. I’ve envisioned this all year round. I was just questioning the (reason) why I couldn’t get it out of ’em. But somehow, someway — they’re playing well.”
Emporia boys 41, Newton 25
Emporia 11 6 10 14 — 41
Newton 3 2 6 14 — 25
Emporia (12-9) — Gentz 1-2 0-0 2, Childs 3-6 1-2 7, Euler 4-9 1-1 11, Torres 2-4 2-2 7, Canales 6-8 1-2 13, Essex 0-0 0-0 0, Huth 0-0 1-4 1, Jamison 0-0 0-0 0, Lindquist 0-1 0-0 0, Thomsen 0-0 0-0 0, Robinson 0-0 0-0 0, Barlett 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 16-31 6-11 41.
Newton (13-8) — Claassen 0-5 0-0 0, Mitchem 2-8 0-0 6, Thaw 1-5 0-0 2, Reinhardt 3-6 2-5 8, Baker 1-3 0-0 3, Kaufman 1-4 0-0 2, Lacoste 1-8 0-0 2, Frank 0-0 0-0 0, Vermillion 0-0 0-0 0, Moreland 1-1 0-0 2, Grochowsky 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 10-40 2-5 25.
3-point goals — Emporia (Euler 2-4, Torres 1-3, Childs 0-2, Gentz 0-1, Lindquist 0-1, Bartlett 0-1), Newton 3-16 (Mitchem 2-6, Baker 1-3, Claassen 0-4, Lacoste 0-3). Rebounds — Emporia 27 (Childs, Canales 5), Newton 22 (Claassen, Lacoste 4). Fouled out — None.