At some point in a game, even when they’re struggling, the Emporia High girls always seem to find the way to take control and wrap up the victory. They did it again when it really counted, and they’re headed to State for the second straight year.
Lexi Hileman scored 10 of her team-leading 12 points during an 18-3 second-half run, leading Emporia back to the Class 5A tournament after a 36-26 win over Newton on Friday in Salina. The Lady Spartans will head up the Turnpike next week on the high of a 13-game win streak and will carry an overall mark of 18-4, the same record they had last year when they hit the Kansas Expocentre.
“It feels good,” Emporia coach Bill Nienstedt said. “It’s a great, great thing for our seven seniors to get to make back-to-back trips to the State tournament. Couldn’t be prouder of our kids — all of them, but especially happy for seven seniors.”
The key to the big run, which finally got the Spartans separation after leading just 16-14 at halftime, was feeding one of those seniors in the high post. Guarded by Newton’s 6-foot-4 post, Kate Lehman, Hileman got the ball at the elbow and began attacking off the dribble. She’d either score or get fouled, and she went 4-for-5 at the foul line.
“I didn’t think that big girl could guard me, so I took it to her — pushed it right through her chin,” the 5-foot-11 Hileman said. “And at the end of that, I made my free throws, which helped us a lot.”
Of course, exploiting Lehman’s troubles guarding Hileman was a team effort.
“I thought too, though, that our kids did a good job of recognizing the matchup where we could attack, and getting her the ball there,” Nienstedt said. “And then she became aggressive and attacked the basket.”
Emporia led 34-19 with about five minutes remaining and hung on after that for the win. The Spartans made 7-of-10 free throws in the second half after a first half in which they didn’t get to the line at all. Nienstedt said they displayed a lack of aggressiveness by either shooting too quickly or passing the ball around without attacking.
“I think we just kind of got the nerves out of our system,” said junior Lindy Arndt, who finished with nine points. “We knew what was on the line, and we all wanted to go to State really bad. In the first half, we were just nervous, and in the second half, our nerves kind of settled.”
Hileman was the only Spartan in double figures and also grabbed six rebounds. Alli Armitage had six points on a pair of 3-pointers, and Amber Miller had five. Hilary Heinrichs had five rebounds. All four of those players are seniors, and they’ll be relishing one final shot at State after last year’s trip didn’t turn out so well — the Spartans lost to Miege in overtime in the first round.
“That’s something that we as a team want to do — we want to redeem ourselves and make it past that first round, and just play a great game, and keep on playing great,” Hileman said. “And that loss last year hurt, but then again, it made us stronger, and we have learned from our mistakes.”
“We talked as a team at the start of this basketball season that we thought we had a chance to be better than we were last year,” Nienstedt said. “Last year, we entered the State tournament 18-4 and weren’t able to win a game. But we’re in a position right now that we can prove that we are a little bit better than we were last year. And I know that’s important to our kids.”
The Kansas State High School Activities Association will post its State brackets no later than 10 a.m. Sunday, according to its Web site, www.kshsaa.org.
Friday at Salina Central
Newton 7 7 5 7 — 26
Emporia 9 7 12 8 — 36
Newton (11-11) — Gronau 2, McCartney 8, Vogts 7, Lehman 2, Minkevitch 2, Alexander 5.
Emporia (18-4) — Armitage 6, Leihsing 2, Miller 5, Arndt 9, Heinrichs 2, Hileman 12.
3-point goals — Newton 2 (McCartney 2), Emporia 3 (Armitage 2, Miller). Rebounds — Newton 18 (Lehman 9), Emporia 21 (Hileman 6, Heinrichs 5).