Robben rescues Lady Hornets
Senior guard lifts ESU past MWSU
By Jeff Deters
Thursday, January 26, 2012
When the Emporia State Lady Hornets are in crunch time, it’s a pretty good bet that Heather Robben’s going to have the ball.
Robben, of course, is ESU’s senior point guard. She can dribble and drive, or hit the open teammate. But she’s also pretty good at hitting big-time shots.
With the Hornets setting up an in-bounds play and clinging to a three-point lead in the late going, Robben came off a screen and drained a 3-point dagger from the right wing with 18 seconds to go to help ESU survive 73-65 over Missouri Western Wednesday at White Auditorium.
“It’s just an out of bounds play that we run,” Robben said. “And they were actually in a zone, so I don’t really know how it worked. But it worked and I just made the shot.”
Robben finished the night with 27 points, including the last nine for ESU.
“I’m glad she made it because we needed that bucket,” ESU coach Jory Collins said of her 3-pointer. “She made free throws down the stretch like she’s done all year. She was 8 of 8 (from the line) and I thought we needed every one of those.”
The Hornets (14-3, 10-2 MIAA) never trailed in the game, and led by as many as 17 in the first half. ESU led 43-30 at the break after shooting a sizzling 16 of 24 (66.7 percent) in the first 20 minutes. But the ESU offense went cold for much of the second half.
The Griffons also doubled the post, and a slew of ESU turnovers (21 in the game) helped the Griffons (5-12, 3-9 MIAA) tie it at 57-all with 4:10 to go.
“We just weren’t strong with the ball,” Robben said. “We weren’t paying attention. It wasn’t the defense it was us just not coming to the ball or us waiting for the defense to go and them coming to the ball.”
The Hornets also played without Kelsey Balcom who was out for the second straight game with a bad ankle.
Freshman Kathryn Flott started in Balcom’s place and scored nine points and had two rebounds in 14 minutes. Dava Logsdon also chipped in eight points, seven rebounds and drew two charges in 23 minutes.
Logsdon said she was ready for the additional playing time.
“When K.B. did have an injury, I felt like I was prepared to step up,” Logsdon said.
But Collins would still like to see more from both of them as well as cutting down on their mistakes.
“When they play well, it’s nice to give them minutes,” Collins said. “When they made a couple shots at the beginning of the game that’s great, but there’s a lot of things that don’t go on a stat sheet that they don’t do well that hurt us. And Kathryn’s really inexperienced, and Dava, as far as playing time, she’s inexperienced as well. She made some great plays, but there’s still a reason Kelsey Balcom plays 30 minutes a game.”
Merissa Quick had 10 points and five boards for the Hornets. MWSU’s Jessica Koch scored a game-high 33, including 23 in the second half.
ESU will play at 1 p.m. Saturday at Truman.
Wednesday at White Auditorium
Missouri Western 30 35 — 65
Emporia State 43 30 — 73
MISSOURI WESTERN
Koch 12-20 7-10 33, Mgbike 0-2 0-0 0, Schoonover 2-4 0-0 5, Noble 1-4 4-4 6, Bell 1-4 0-0 2, Casady 1-2 0-0 3, romdenne 2-3 0-1 4, Saxen 1-4 2-2 4, Linihan 0-1 0-0 0, Stone 3-6 2-2 8, Mercer 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-50 15-19 65.
EMPORIA STATE
Flott 4-4 1-2 9, Quick 4-7 2-3 10, Hanf 2-6 0-0 4, Cummings 3-4 1-2 7, Robben 8-16 8-8 27, Egli 0-2 0-0 0, Parker 0-1 0-0 0, Krueger 0-0 0-0 0, Wood 1-3 4-4 6, Logsdon 3-5 1-1 8. Totals 25-48 19-22 73.
3-point goals — MWSU: 4-10 (Koch 2-4, Schoonover 1-1, Bell 0-1, Casady 1-2, Saxen 0-2) ESU: 4-14 (Hanf 0-4, Cummings 0-1, Robben 3-7, Logsdon 1-2).
Rebounds — MWSU: 22 (Stone 5) ESU: 27 (Logsdon 7).
Assists — MWSU: 13 (Noble 5) ESU: 16 (Quick, Egli 3).
Att. — 1,760.