Women's Basketball | 1/23/2019 9:40:17 PM

Each week David Boyce, the MIAA’s featured writer, will cover a key match-up in one of the conference’s sports. In this MIAA Showcase, David Boyce covers the women’s basketball match between Emporia State at No. 23 Pittsburg State.

PITTSBURG, Kan. - Emporia State women’s basketball team went on the road to Lance Arena Wednesday evening needing a conference win. It didn’t matter that Pittsburg State entered the WBCA top 25 for the first time this season at No. 23.

And the Lady Hornets weren’t going to be intimidated that Pittsburg State was tied for first in the MIAA with Fort Hays State.

Faced with a three-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter, the Lady Hornets stung Pittsburg State with an offensive burst that produced a 10-point lead with less than 4 minutes left.

Emporia State carried that advantage to a 77-71 victory and improved to 13-5 overall and 4-4 in the MIAA. Pittsburg State dropped to 15-3 and 7-2.

“This was a really big game for us,” said Emporia State senior Addie Lackey. “Pitt State is always a good game, kind of a rivalry game. We had to come out with a lot of energy. I feel that we did. We wanted to win it.”

Throughout the game, the 22 points by senior Tyra Jones and the 14 points by Lackey kept the Lady Hornets close and slightly ahead at times. But two of the most important baskets came from a sophomore and a junior off the bench.

With a 63-60 lead, Emporia State sophomore guard Kali Martin drilled a three-pointer, increasing the Lady Hornets’ lead to six with 5 minutes, 35 seconds left.

“It was huge,” Martin said. “The coach has been getting on me to shoot the ball and that is what I did.”

In the next possession, junior forward Morgan Laudan knocked down a three-pointer, giving Emporia State a 69-62.

“Honestly, I wasn’t looking at the score,” Laudan said. “I knew I was open. Coach said all night that if you are in range, go ahead and let it go and that is what I did.”

Martin and Laudan came off the bench and combined for 12 points.

“We talked about it in the film room on Monday that we needed to have some production off the bench, an infusion of energy,” said Emporia State coach Toby Wynn. “Kali came in and hit a big three-pointer. Morgan hits a big three and gets a couple of buckets. Those kinds of things are huge for us.”

Feeding off the momentum of those two treys, the Lady Hornets extended their lead to 73-63. They needed just about each one of those points.

Pittsburg State scored the next eight points and closed to 73-71 with 1:33 left and got possession with an opportunity to tie the game.

“We just stayed together and had a lot of energy,” Martin said.

Two free throws by graduate student Emily Miller with 50 seconds left pushed the Lady Hornets lead back to four and put the game away.

After seeing a seven-point first-quarter lead turn into a three-point halftime deficit, Pittsburg State senior Shelby Lopez came out firing. Her back-to-back three-pointers gave the Gorillas a 35-32 lead at the start of the third quarter. Pittsburg State held the three-point advantage the rest of the quarter and went into the fourth quarter ahead 54-51.

“I wanted to see a little bit of toughness, a little bit of fight,” Wynn said. “We had a tough game against Nebraska-Kearney. We really didn’t bring our A game.”

“I wanted to see what kind of fight we had against a quality opponent. Our players came out and competed really hard. It took us a little bit to get going early. Our players finished the game off and made the right plays.”

Pittsburg State started the game with a three-pointer from junior Megan Maher and led most of the first half, building a 16-9 lead late in the first quarter.

But when the first quarter ended, the Gorillas held only a 16-14 lead and that was a harbinger of things to come. By late in the second quarter, the lead changed seven times. Emporia State went into halftime ahead 32-29.

Sparking the Lady Hornets late in the second quarter was Jones, who scored five of her 10 points in the first half in the final 4 minutes in the second quarter.

After a nice start, Pittsburg State had trouble finding an offensive rhythm, The consistent source of offense came from Lopez and freshman center Megan Scott. Both scored seven points, combining to go five for eight from the field. Meanwhile, Emporia State had four players score at least five points.