CANYON, TEXAS — As Cassondra Boston was announced as the South Central Regional tournament MVP on Monday night, her teammates lifted her in the air.
They had done enough already.
Boston carried her fellow Lady Hornets many times this season and hit the biggest shot of the Regional tournament two days earlier, but it was her supporting cast that made the difference in a dominant 76-45 win over Northeastern State that has Emporia State headed to its first Elite Eight since 2006.
The Lady Hornets might have limped into the Regional — losing three of five coming in — but they’re leaps and bounds ahead of where they were just a week ago.
The difference, they will tell you, was a defense that helped them jump out to big leads early in all three games and stymied Northeastern State into one of its worst performances of the season. The RiverHawks shot 27 percent, scored just 17 points in the first half and suffered by far their worst loss of the season — they had only lost one game by double digits all year, and that was by 14 to Tarleton State.
“I think we played really well this whole weekend, because we played really well defensively,” Boston said. “Coming into this, we hadn’t been playing really well, and it was a goal of ours to step up and play better defense, and I think we definitely did that this weekend.”
More important than defense might have been the confidence that ESU played with, something that had gone missing late in the year.
The Lady Hornets regained that swagger they had in the middle of the season with a 90-71 win in the opening round over Tarleton State. That win carried over into Saturday’s performance in an impressive 76-69 win over top seed and host West Texas A&M, and Emporia State looked simply untouchable against Northeastern State.
“We lost a couple of games late that didn’t allow us to win a regular season championship, and that hurt us,” ESU coach Brandon Schneider said. “Emotionally it hurt our kids, because they have so much invested, but that didn’t mean we weren’t good. That’s what we kept stressing.”
Schneider also made a few changes to his offense coming into the tournament, and the biggest difference was an emphasis on getting the ball in the post. Alli Volkens averaged 20.5 points in the first two games of the Regional, and Northeastern State paid a lot of attention to Volkens when she got the ball in the post.
Volkens took her shots when she could get them and scored eight points, but she also kicked the ball out when the RiverHawks brought double teams.
Any which way the RiverHawks tried to guard the Lady Hornets, it didn’t matter.
The Lady Hornets almost seemed like they were taking turns as the star in each segment of the game. Sophia Lenard scored five straight points that keyed a 16-2 run in the first half. Brittney Miller picked and chose her opportunities to score and tied Lenard and Jamie Augustyn with a team-high 12 points. Augustyn hit big back-to-back 3-pointers to start a 20-2 second half run that turned the game into a blowout after the RiverHawks had cut the lead to 13. Even seldom-used Ashley Ferrell scored four straight points and had a block late in the first half.
“I thought everyone stepped up really well, and we just executed really, really well this game,” Augustyn said.
The Lady Hornets (27-5) looked like a balanced, complete team throughout the tournament, and that was not something they could say late in the season, when their shooting numbers were dropping and much of the scoring load was falling on Boston.
On Monday, 10 of the 11 ESU players scored, and six players scored eight or more.
“The one thing it probably brought to our attention, at least to the coaching staff, is we were thinking too much when we were playing,” Schneider said of the late-season struggles. “I think I had overloaded their brains a little bit with some offensive things. We’ve cut in half what we were doing, simplified, and just reminded them that they’re pretty good players and we’re going to free you up and let you go make some plays.”
If Schneider handed the keys over to anyone, it was Boston, who controls the ESU offense and has had a calming influence on her team throughout the Regional.
Boston had an off shooting night against Northeastern State — 4 of 13 — but she did everything else right, distributing the ball for a game-high seven assists and also pulling down five rebounds. She also hit two big 3-pointers early in the game to get things started and finished with 11 points.
“I believe in her a lot,” Schneider said. “So I think that the players obviously have a lot of trust and faith in Cassondra to lead our team, to control the game, to make good decisions, and it’s not just all about her scoring. She kept everybody involved, and she hadn’t shot it great all tournament, but she made a huge shot against West Texas, and I think she’s just made good decisions and kept everybody involved.”
Emporia State’s four senior guards — Boston, Augustyn, Lenard and Lacy Corker — had made the Regional tournament every season, but they had never made it to the Elite Eight.
“It being our last year, it was something we definitely wanted to do,” Boston said.
Now that they’re headed to St. Joseph, Mo., for the Elite Eight, which begins next Tuesday, the seniors wanted to make sure that their teammates know they’re not finished yet.
The team celebrated Monday night after the game with dinner at a Mexican restaurant, and as they left, their families and fans chanted “three more games, three more games.”
After a dominating performance at the Regional, anything seems possible now.
Monday at Canyon, Texas
Emporia State 76,
Northeastern State 45
Emporia State 30 46 — 76
NE State 17 28 — 45
EMPORIA STATE (27-5)
Augustyn 4-5 0-0 12, Miller 2-7 6-8 12, Lenard 4-7 3-3 12, Boston 4-13 1-1 11, Corker 2-5 4-4 9, Volkens 4-8 0-0 8, Ferrell 2-2 0-0 4, Cummings 2-2 0-0 4, Newman 1-1 0-0 2, Taylor 1-2 0-0 2, Hanf 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 26-55 14-16 76.
NORTHEASTERN STATE (28-7)
White 4-10 7-7 15, Perkins 4-9 1-3 9, Tyler 2-6 0-0 6, Webb 2-12 1-1 5, Fraley 2-7 0-0 4, Dean 1-4 0-0 2, Nitz 1-2 0-0 2, Millar 1-5 0-0 2, Green 0-1 0-0 0, Wright 0-2 0-1 0, Lewis 0-5 0-0 0. Totals 17-63 9-12 45.
3-point goals — Emporia State 10-24 (Augustyn 4-4, Miller 2-4, Boston 2-10, Corker 1-2, Lenard 1-3, Hanf 0-1), Northeastern State 2-13 (Tyler 2-3, Perkins 0-1, Webb 0-1, Fraley 0-2, Nitz 0-1, Millar 0-3, Lewis 0-1, White 0-1). Fouled out — Emporia State: None, Northeastern State: None. Rebounds — Emporia State 47 (Cummings 8), Northeastern State 31 (White 7). Assists — Emporia State 14 (Boston 7), Northeastern State 10 (White 5). Total fouls — Emporia State 18, Northeastern State 13. Att. — 687.
ELITE EIGHT
Emporia State vs.
Michigan Tech or Drury
When:
Tuesday, March 23 at 8:30 p.m.
Where:
Civic Arena in St. Joseph, Mo.
Tickets for the Elite Eight can be purchased online through ticketmaster.com or by calling the Civic Arena Box Office at (816) 271-4717.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Cassondra Boston, Emporia State
Alli Volkens,
Emporia State
Sophia Lenard,
Emporia State
Jamie Simmons, West Texas A&M
Jessica White,
Northeastern State
MVP — Cassondra Boston, Emporia State