By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
In a game that was built to be a heavyweight fight and a battle for the Centennial League title Tuesday night in Emporia, things started off the wrong way for Hayden's girls as Emporia opened the first quarter with a 24-0 shutout and added five more points to start the second quarter before the Wildcats would score their first points three minutes into the second quarter down 29-0.
Brylee Meier
Norma Greco
Hayden was able to fight back to make it a game over the final three quarters, but the Spartans wlked away with a 44-32 win.
Junior Norma Greco would finally get the Wildcats on the board with two free throws and the Wildcats would scratch and claw and go on their own 13-0 run to go into halftime down 29-13.
“We found ourselves in a situation that really tests our character down 29-0,'' Hayden coach Carvel Reynoldon said. "I've never been in a situation like that, but the way that the girls fought back and turned it into a 38-30 game, with us having all the momentum, I see the positive in what happened tonight.”
The Wildcats would come out of halftime still fighting as they would outscore the Spartans 10-5 in the third quarter to go into the fourth down 34-23 and go on a 7-2 run to start the fourth with the Spartans doing a lot of stalling.
“We can't allow ourselves to get jumped on like that,'' Reynoldson said. "The fact that we fought back and didn't point fingers and blame everybody else we just kept fighting, you know it took a while to get there but as soon as we found a little spark we really ramped up the defense.
"We still didn't hit a lot of shots, there were some easy shots that we missed, but I am proud of our effort and proud of our resilience.”
The Spartans would go on to close out the 12-point win and take command in the Centennial League race.
The Wildcats were led in scoring by juniors Norma Greco and Brylee Meier with 8 points apiece.
The Spartans were led in scoring by senior Addie Kirmer with 25 points.
EMPORIA GIRLS 44, HAYDEN 32
Hayden 0 13 10 9 -- 32
Emporia 24 5 5 10 -- 44
Hayden (13-2, 4-2)– Greco 0-6 8-8 8, Sandstrom 3-8 1-2 7, Fulton 0-6 0-0 0, Meier 3-10 1-1 8, Ramsey 2-4 3-4 7, Grunert 0-2 2-2 2, Reid 0-0 0-0 0, Reagan Huescher 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 8-36 15-17 32.
Emporia (14-1 6-0)– Kirmer 11-21 1-1 25, Peak 1-2 0-0 3, Bennett 2-5 0-0 5, DeWitt 0-2 2-2 2, Shivley 3-3 1-2 7, Gutierrez 0-1 0-0 0, Herkens 0-1 0-2 0, Baker 0-0 0-0 0, Pearson 1-1 0-0 0. Totals 18-36 5-7 44.
