By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
EMPORIA, KS - The Missouri Western women's basketball team got off to electric starts in both the first and second quarters, leading by as many as 14 in the first half.
Emporia State hit back, trailing by only four at halftime and leading 59-56 entering the fourth. The Griffons (9-4, 4-2 MIAA) saved the best for last, outscoring Emporia 26-15 in the final 10 minutes, and the Griffons topped the Hornets 82-74 at White Auditorium on Monday afternoon.
Missouri Western was 8-of-13 from the field in the fourth quarter, including 3-of-4 from three. The Griffons also made seven of their last eight free throws to seal a big road win.
"Really proud of our effort and how we showed up today," Missouri Western women's basketball coach Candi Whitaker said. "I really like this team and I think we can keep getting better. We just have to understand what makes us good."
Western used a 12-2 run in the early part of the fourth to go up 68-61 with 7:53 remaining. Emporia (9-2, 4-1 MIAA) got back to within 72-70 with 5:04 to go, but that's as close as it got.
It was a full team effort for the Griffons Monday. Junior Brionna Budgets scored 24 points on a career-best six made three-pointers. Junior Connie Clarke scored 19 on 8-of-11 shooting. She also had eight rebounds.
Fellow junior Trinity Knapp logged a career-high 17 points to go with six rebounds. She was an astounding +26 on the final stat sheet.
"Trinity is playing really, really well," Whitaker emphasized. "She's playing like we thought she could play. She likes to shoot the three. What I want to tell her is, 'You played really, really well and haven't taken a three.' She was so great at cutting in the back of that zone offense and catching high (passes) and finishing."
True freshman Meredith Rieker also came off the bench and scored nine points on three straight three-pointers in the first half.
Redshirt junior Tre'Zure Jobe led Emporia with a game-high 31 points. The Hornets nabbed 12 steals, turned the Griffons over 20 times and outrebounded Western on the offensive glass 20-6.
It wasn't always smooth sailing, and the game featured six ties and four lead changes. But, the Griffons outshot the Hornets from the field, from three and from the free throw line.
Missouri Western snapped a six-game winning streak for Emporia State, handing the Hornets their first conference loss of the season, while picking up a huge confidence boost for themselves heading into a nine-day break before the next game.
"I thought we had great team effort to rebound the basketball in the fourth (quarter) and do a little better job there," Whitaker said of her team's finish. "We turned them over a bit and made them take some quick shots and rebounded it. All of that was very timely. We had multiple people step up in this game."
MWSU men overcome 12-point hole, fend off #22 Emporia State late
Monday's game started as bad as it could have for Missouri Western. The Griffons made just four of their first 20 shot attempts and got down 17-5 with 10:18 left in the first half.
Coach Will Martin called timeout, drew up a new offense and things slowly, but surely, started to swing.
The Griffons (6-3, 3-1 MIAA) ended the first half on a 20-11 run and only trailed 28-25 at the break.
The impressive swing continued, as Missouri Western shot north of 50% in the second half, outscoring the No. 22 Hornets 43-36 in the final 20 minutes to pull off a 68-64 win on Monday afternoon at White Auditorium.
"Just so proud of our guys," Missouri Western coach Will Martin said. "We just kept chipping away. We keep saying we have no excuses, no matter what adversity hits and we're going to embrace it and we have. I mean, you take a tough one on the chin at Washburn and that's not fun, but we responded. I thought the guys were really locked in today."
After shooting just 32.1% the first half, the Griffons shot 51.6% the second half and went up 60-48 with 6:42 remaining.
Emporia State (9-2, 4-2 MIAA) didn't go down without a fight on their home floor. The Hornets used a 10-1 run to pull within 61-58 with 3:33 left.
Junior Owen Long hit a transition three-pointer up top and got fouled by Missouri Western's Julius Dixon as he went up. Long converted the four-point play, and Emporia's home crowd was back into it.
The Hornets never got closer, as the Griffons got key stops down the stretch and made five of their final seven free throws to hold on.
Sophomore Reed Kemp made the final free throw to put the Griffons up four with 3.5 seconds remaining, ultimately sealing the deal for Missouri Western.
Kemp led the Griffons in scoring for a second straight game, coming off the bench to score 13. Julius Dixon, Will Eames and Reese Glover each had 12 points. Glover made four three-pointers, moving him to second all-time in program history with 219 made threes.
Eames logged a team-high 12 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Zion Swader was the fifth Griffon in double figures with 11 points.
Owen Long, who led Emporia with 29 points in a victory over No. 1 Northwest Missouri State this past Saturday, led his team again Monday with 23 points on 5-of-9 shooting from long range. Atavian Butler came off the bench and scored 11 for the Hornets.
The win Monday is Missouri Western's first at Emporia since February 2018 and it marks the sixth win over a ranked team for Coach Martin, who's still early in his third year as head coach.
In the context of this season, Monday's result sure feels good for the Griffons after they got thumped 76-51 at Washburn two days prior - their first game after a 14-day pause due to COVID-19.
"What we judge the performance on is, are we getting better?" Martin said. "To be able to get the win is amazing, but I saw our team get better today. There's no doubt about it we got better. To be able to take that step going into break makes me really confident."
Both the Missouri Western men and women are back in action at home on Dec. 28. The women host Saint Mary and the men host Friends - both NAIA opponents.
The women tip off at 5:30 and the men follow at 7:30. Both games will be on KFEQ Radio (680, 95.3).
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