Hornet rally falls short to MWSU
Hornets can't dig out of early hole
By Jeff Deters
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Emporia State men’s basketball coach Shaun Vandiver has told his team repeatedly that it is not good enough to simply show up and win a game. The Hornets were mostly no-shows in the first half and trailed by 15 at one point. And though they put together a rally in the second half, the Hornets fell 72-66 to Missouri Western Wednesday at White Auditorium.
“When you spot teams in this league double-digit leads and then decide you want to fight to get out of it, you can’t do that,” Vandiver said. “This league is way too good to be sitting back and say, ‘Hey, we’re down 19-6. Let’s start playing.’ And I’m disappointed because the biggest thing I harp with my team is that you’re not good enough to just show up. We have to constantly fight and come out throwing punches.”
The Hornets didn’t do that in the first half at all. They trailed 35-23 at the break. Only three ESU players scored in the first half.
The Hornets (8-10, 4-8 MIAA) finished the night shooting just 25 of 63 (39.7 percent).
“We got to figure out a lot of guys,” Vandiver said. “A lot of guys got to start knocking down shots. We’re going to take a step back and look at it and we’ll get back at it and get to work.”
As bad as it looked offensively, the Hornets had plenty of opportunities to pull out the win. Lawal scored 17 of his 28 points in the second half and Chris Sights had 20 points and four threes to help ESU get back in it.
The Griffons also shot just 18 of 31 from the free-throw line, including a woeful 16 of 29 in the second half. But ESU couldn’t take advantage.
“It’s definitely frustrating, but that’s on us,” Sights said. “We have to capitalize. There were some big moments at the end where once again we didn’t grab the rebound. We had opportunities to box out, go down and score. And maybe the game would have turned out different.”
After five straight points from Travis Dykman pulled the Hornets to within nine with 9:07 to go, MWSU’s James Harris answered with a field goal after an offensive rebound.
After the Griffons built its lead back to 14, ESU rallied and cut it to eight with 2:06 to go on a jumper by Sights.
ESU fouled and put the Griffons (7-11, 2-10 MIAA) on the line, where they struggled and left the door open for the Hornets.
A 3-pointer by Sights made it 70-66 with 14 seconds to go, but MWSU’s James Harris hit two free throws to seal the win.
The Hornets outscored the Griffons 43-37 in the second half, but by then it was too late.
“If we come out and play the same way we did the second half, we’d be good,” Lawal said.
ESU won the rebounding battle 37-30 and committed just seven turnovers.
“It was a great opportunity lost,” Sights said. “Again we dug ourselves a hole and nobody’s that good enough a team to get down and claw back. We have to come out and play from the beginning.”
Wednesday at White Auditorium
Mo. Western 35 37 — 72
Emporia State 23 43 — 66
MISSOURI WESTERN
Douglas 4-9 4-7 12, Tarver 4-8 4-5 12, Johnson 4-8 0-1 9, Mells 2-3 0-0 5, Harris 5-10 8-14 20, Frazier 1-2 2-4 4, Tuluka 3-6 0-0 8, Reid 1-1 2. Totals 24-47 18-31 72.
EMPORIA STATE
Pierce 0-4 2-2 2, DiMaria 2-8 0-0 5, Ikhide 1-1 2-4 4, Sights 8-14 0-0 20, Euler 1-5 0-0 2, Lawal 11-26 5-9 28, Dykman 2-5 0-0 5, Simmons 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-63 9-15 66.
3-point goals — MWSU: 6-13 (Johnson 1-3, Mells 1-2, Harris 2-3, Tuluka 2-5) ESU: 7-25 (DiMaria 1-6, Sights 4-5, Euler 0-3, Lawal 1-8, Dykman 1-3).
Rebounds — MWSU: 30 (Douglas 7) ESU: 37 (Pierce 8).
Assists — MWSU: 17 (Johson 6) ESU: 10 (Euler 3).
Att. — 1,723.