Lady Hornets upset on first day of MIAA Tourney

Chris Hunter / The Bulletin

Senior forward Michelle Stueve drives past a Washburn defender in Topeka on February 23. The Hornets fell to Truman State in the first round of the MIAA Tournament in Kansas City, Mo. on Thursday.

A career night by a Truman State guard and a slow start by Emporia State led to the seventh seeded Bulldogs to a 77-70 first round upset of ESU in the MIAA Tournament Thursday night in Kansas City.

TSU got out to an early lead as ESU missed two quick shots. The Bulldogs took advantage of cold shooting from the Hornets and TSU was able to build a 9-2 lead which forced an ESU timeout almost four minutes into the game.

Head Coach Brandon Schneider was not pleased with the team's shooting early.

"I thought our shot selection was poor as it's been in a long time. We kind of shot our way into a deficit then we tried to jump shoot our way back into the game and played that way for about 33 or 34 minutes," Schneider said. "When started to try and get the ball in lane whether it was on a post feed or dribble penetration we obviously started to score some baskets."

Junior forward Ida Edwards took over as the offensive presence for ESU in the first half to help the Hornets kept pace with TSU and slowly closed the gap. A three-pointer from sophomore guard Cassondra Boston at the 9:01 mark brought ESU within three. The Hornets then got a layup from Edwards to make it a 14-15 game.

Senior forward Michelle Stueve hit a layup with 3:41 left in the first half to give ESU a 20-19 lead. The lead would be the only for the Hornets on the day, and would only last for 11 seconds as TSU hit a three-pointer on the ensuing possession to take the lead back. The layup was Stueve's fourth point of the game.

"There for some stretches the only way Michelle was going to touch it was to get an offensive rebound," Schneider said. "We just took some really bad shots and lacked any kind of patience at all to reverse the ball and get it in her hands."

TSU didn't look back for the rest of the half as the Bulldogs built up a seven point lead. At the half, ESU was down 24-31. Edwards led ESU with 12 points and nine rebounds. Stueve added four points and four rebounds as Boston had five points. As a team ESU shot 36.7 percent from the field and 10.0 percent from the three-point line, making one out of ten attempts. The Hornets also had 12 turnovers in the first 20 minutes.

The Hornets started the game down seven and it went almost immediately to a 10 point deficit as TSU hit a three-point 16 seconds into the second half. TSU built the lead up to 13 points before a pair of shots from junior forward Allie Renberg and a three-pointer by Boston cut the lead back to seven with 13:00 left.

The Bulldogs were able to answer the short ESU run and built a lead to as big as 17 points midway through the half. ESU continued to chip away at the lead and brought it back down to eight points following a three-pointer by junior guard Andrea Leiker that capped a 14-5 ESU run with 4:46 left in the game.

The push by the Hornets kept up as a three-point basket by sophomore guard Lacy Corker followed by another three-pointer from Boston cut the deficit to four points with 32 seconds left in the game.

ESU could not convert any more shots as TSU made three of four free throw attempts in the final 30 seconds.

Stueve led the way for ESU with 17 points, six rebounds and four assists. Boston had 15 points, five assists and nine rebounds. Edwards chipped in 14 points and 11 rebounds to make it her fourth double-double of the season as Leiker added 12 points.

For the game, ESU shot 41.0 percent from the floor, 29.2 percent from the three-point line and 68.4 percent from the free-throw line. In the points off of turnovers category, ESU scored 14 to TSU's 25.

TSU guard Katie Fowler had 26 points and made four of four three-pointers attempted to lead the Bulldogs over ESU.

"I think the key to the game was Fowler's play on the offensive end I thought she was terrific," Schneider said. "On the offensive end for us it was just really poor shot selection we didn't rely on execution whatsoever."

As the Hornets will prepare for an expected invitation to the NCAA Tournament, Schneider was not pleased the team's overall execution against TSU and said the emphasis for the team during the time before the game would be maturity and preparation.

"You have to execute, in particularly when you're behind," Schneider said. "I think we need to spend a few days maybe redefining who we'd like to take the majority of our shots."

Leiker thought the loss would bring the team down but knows there are things the team needs to continue to do.

"Obviously it kind of breaks us down a little bit, losing a game we didn't expect to lose. We still have things out there that we can accomplish," Leiker said. "We have to stick together as a team, do the things we need to to get back to where we need to be."