EMPORIA — Sometimes a team is able to elevate its play in a basketball tournament, one day after playing one of the top teams in the state.
That wasn’t the case for Great Bend High School during a losers’ bracket game on Friday evening in the Glacier’s Edge Girls Basketball Tournament.
One day removed from losing 68-32 to Olathe South, the No. 2-ranked team in Class 6A by the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association, the Lady Panthers took on host Emporia and came out flatter than a pancake during a 46-25 setback.
“About the time when we really think we’re going to get a score, there was a traveling call on us or a bad pass,” Great Bend head coach Jason Tatkenhorst said. “We had some bad-luck opportunities out there and we felt like something good was going to happen and it just turned opposite on us.
“You can’t knock the girls’ effort. They continued to battle the entire game. That’s the most positive thing we can get out of this.”
After Great Bend (1-11) trailed 8-4 after the first-quarter buzzer, Emporia blew the game open with a 20-6 run — a 14-6 lead in the second quarter that stretched to 33-6 with 3:18 remaining in the third. Although the Lady Panthers scored a vast majority of their points in the game’s final 10 minutes, the final verdict was already decided.
Great Bend missed five of its first six shots, turned the ball over 10 times in the first half and 17 for the game and never recovered from its mid-game scoring drought.
“Part of the problem, is that we miss the shot and that simply allowed Emporia to get a defensive rebound and fast-break on us,” Tatkenhorst said.
Emporia’s Kayna Hastings drained a 3-pointer with 3:56 remaining in the second quarter, the start of a 9-0 run that increased the lead to 23-6 with 2:35 left before halftime. It spelled the beginning of the end for the Lady Panthers.
After post players Liz Kutina and Morgan Harwood scored the last four of six points by Great Bend to close the gap to 25-12, eight straight Emporia points increased the margin to 33-12.
It was 23-10 at halftime and 38-13 after three quarters.
Brianna Knight, Emporia’s leading scorer on the season, paced the Lady Spartans (4-8) with 16 points and Hastings added 10. They were playing in a losers bracket game for the first time in the history of the long-running tournament.
Great Bend (1-11), which played for seventh place on Saturday, was led by Harwood with 11 points, including five in the fourth quarter.
HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
38th Annual Glacier’s Edge
Basketball Tournament
At Emporia
Emporia High School
GIRLS
Friday
Losers’ Bracket
Emporia 46, Great Bend 25
GREAT BEND (1-11)
Brandi Schneider 1 0-0 2, Emily Cruse 0 0-0 0, Olivia Basye 0 0-0 0, Katelyn Henning 0 0-0 0, Hannah Hildebrand 0 0-0 0, Liz Kutina 2 2-2 6, Regan Unruh 0 0-0 0, Kaylie Doll 0 1-2 1, McKenna Mauler 1 0-0 2, Tarynn Stueder 0 0-2 0, Morgan Harwood 5 1-3 11, Kelsey Crosby 1 0-0 3. Totals 10 4-9 25.
EMPORIA (4-8)
Bethany Bowman 2 2-2 6, Raegan Sanchez 1 0-0 2, Alex Johnson 3 2-2 8, Kayna Hastings 4 0-0 10, Whitney Wilhite 1 2-2 4, Hayley Guion 0 0-0 0, Brianna Knight 7 2-4 16, Emily Burns 0 0-0 0, Theresa Williams 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 8-10 46.
Great Bend 4 6 3 12 — 25
Emporia 8 15 15 8 — 46
Three-point goals — Emporia 2 (Hastings 2); Great Bend 1 (Crosby).
HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
38th Annual Glacier’s Edge
Basketball Tournament
GIRLS
SATURDAY’S RESULTS
Championship — Olathe South 56, Maize 49
Third — Hutchinson 53, Highland Park 40
Fifth — Northwest 65, Emporia 59, 2OT
Seventh — Shawnee Heights 38, Great Bend 35
FRIDAY’S RESULTS
Semifinals
Maize 53, Highland Park 30
Olathe South 67, Hutchinson 55
Losers’ Bracket
Wichita Northwest 36, Shawnee Heights 25
Emporia 46, Great Bend 25
