Women’s Basketball | ESU Bulletin

Category: Women’s Basketball

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With spring break in full swing and March Madness in high gear, the Lady Hornet basketball team was focused on the NCAA Division II Central Regional Championship game against the Augustana Vikings March 18 in Topeka.

Despite coming back from a double-digit deficit, the Hornets fell short by two free throws with just .7 seconds left in the game, losing 74-75. Head Coach Jory Collins addressed his time in the locker room following the heartbreaking loss.

“I couldn’t be more proud to coach this group of players,” Collins said. “I appreciate (the team) hanging in there when it didn’t look very good right after Christmastime, but we stuck with it and we didn’t change anything. We just tried to do what we do a little bit better.”

With just over two minutes left in the first half, the Hornets found themselves trailing by 15 points. This is when they started a 7-2 run just before the half and started off well in the second with a 12-2 run to pull within one point of the Vikings.

From there, neither team could gain a comfortable lead, according to the Emporia State website. The lead changed nine times in the last six minutes of the game. With less than a minute left, junior forward Rheanna Egli drained two free throws to put the Hornets up 72-69. A foul sent the Vikings to the line, and the Hornets found themselves up by only one point.

A couple seconds and a few fouls later, the Hornets maintained their one point lead. After a forced miss for the Vikings with just .7 seconds left, a foul was called on the ESU after a video review. Viking Alex Feeney made both free throws to win the game.

Merissa Quick, sophomore forward, and Rachel Hanf, senior guard, both had over 15 points in the game, and Laura Patrick, junior guard, added 14 points. The Hornets tied their own MIAA record for free throws, making 23 for 23.

“Even though we started out a little slow, we were able to get back in the game,” Quick, undecided major, said. “We are worked hard and we played well, but it was disappointing to lose that way.”

Quick ended her sophomore season with almost 340 points, averaging 11.7 per game.

Even though they could not pull out the win in the championship, the Lady Hornets finished the season 23-9. Eight players will rejoin the lineup for next year.

Lady Hornets Cut down Nets in Kansas City

For the third straight year, the Lady Hornets found themselves in the MIAA Championship game. This time, Head Coach Jory Collins and the Lady Hornets were able to get that monkey off their back, after 67-51 win over University of Central Missouri on Sunday, March 10 at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.

“It feels good – not going to lie,” Collins said. “We haven’t won the conference tournament since I was doing laundry. I’m just really happy for our players Jocelyn and Rachel. We won a national championship together when they were freshman, but I’m glad they could cut some other nets down.”

The MIAA Championship victory is the Lady Hornets fifth in history and the first since the tournament was moved to Kansas City. The win also secured a spot in regionals for the Lady Hornets.

After jumping out early on their previous two MIAA tournament opponents, the Lady Hornets found themselves in a dogfight in the first half with the Mules.

Municipal Auditorium saw six lead changes in the first half with both teams battling for a championship, and a post-season berth. Rachel Hanf, senior guard, did what she does best and hit some big shots when she added back to back threes with 10 minutes to go in the half, securing the lead.

Hanf’s threes helped the Lady Hornets cruise into the half with a 31-23 lead. But UCM made a push in the second half, pulling within five with 12:30 to go before Hanf hit another three.

Once again the Mules were not going to go down without a fight, as they pulled within seven after a three-point play. Hanf stepped up once again when the team needed her most, and sank a three to make it a 10 point game with 52-42.

“It always feels great to get the win, and if I’m the contributing factor, it feels even better, every player wants to do what they can to get the W,” said Merissa Quick, crime and delinquencies major.

Quick, sophomore forward, earned Most Outstanding Player for the tournament with her relentless play throughout the weekend.

The Lady Hornets received an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II tournament. The appearance marks the 15th time in the last 17 years that the Lady Hornets will find themselves in the tournament.

The Lady Hornets look to keep their season alive in regional play with a familiar foe. They will travel to Topeka to take on archrival Washburn this Friday on Schendel Court at Lee Arena. The time of the game time is TBA.

Men’s season ends, women still on hunt

Freshman guard Terrence Moore pushes past a Washburn Ichabod Feb. 28. The Hornets overcame their rivals 61-55.
Will Austin/The Bulletin

In a rollercoaster season, the men’s basketball team finished the year with heartbreakers.

In their first home MIAA playoff game in history, the Hornets suffered a 68-66 loss in the final seconds March 4 against Missouri Southern.

After controlling the floor throughout most of the game, ESU gave up the lead for the first time with just under eight minutes to go in the game.

After a turnover by Gavin Brown and a loose ball foul, Missouri Southern hit the two game-winning free throws to knock the Hornets out of post-season play.

Despite the first round loss, the men finished the season with four MIAA honors, the most since 2007. Paul Bunch made the all-defensive team as well as honorable mention ALL-MIAA. Kaleb Wright and Chris Sights also paved their way to the ALL-MIAA honorable mention team.

The Lady Hornets also had three players earn ALL-MIAA honors, after winning 11 of the last 13 games in the regular season to secure a bye in the opening round of the MIAA tournament.

Rachel Hanf landed second-team honors, Laura Patrick earned third-team honors and Merissa Quick received honorable-mention honors.

Women makes ladies blue on senior night

The crowd blacked out the stands while the Lady Hornets basketball team came out on top, 61-48, in their victory against the rival Lady Blues of Washburn.

“I felt good about our defensive performance,” said Jory Collins, head coach. “We gave up eight fast break points in the first half, and I don’t think we gave up any in the second half. That was the difference in the first game.”

Each team juggled the lead throughout the first half but never brought down the intensity. The Hornets did not start off shooting well from the field, missing their first five attempts and continued to shoot poorly but were able to get multiple attempts through good rebounding.

“I am always confident – I like our team,” Collins said. “If our team plays like that, we are capable of beating anybody, and it is my job to get them to play like that.”

After being down as much as seven points, Emporia State closed the gap, ending the first half down by just one point, 26-25. Merissa Quick, sophomore forward, had a solid first half with seven points, eight rebounds and two assists.

ESU quickly took the lead in the second half with a three-pointer from Laura Patrick. Patrick quickly followed that up with another three-pointer, as the Hornets took off, gaining an eight point lead in the first four minutes of the second half.

“My teammates were just finding me right at the right moment – when I was open enough to shoot it so I was letting it fly,” Patrick, a junior accounting major, said. “This was a lot better, (and) having our home crowd behind us helped a lot.”

ESU sailed their way through the second half, leading by more than 20 points. The Lady Blues played hard until the very end and were able to get a few points back, but the Hornets still came out on top 61-48.

This was the Hornets’ last home game this season, and seniors Rachel Hanf and Jocelyn Cummings were honored before the game.

“It’s really exciting to beat your rival on your senior night,” Hanf, a senior business major, said. “You can’t ask for anything more than that.”

Senior proves herself as top scorer

Rachel Hanf shoots for three over a Washburn rival at her last home game with ESU last night. In her entire career as a Lady Hornet, Hanf has scored over 1,000 points, averaging 12.5 points per game this season.
Will Austin/The Bulletin

Averaging 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists a game during her junior year of high school, Rachel Hanf knew she wanted to play basketball in college. Now, in her final year as a Hornet, the senior business major broke the 1,000-point mark and is a top scoring guard for Emporia State.

“I knew in high school that I wanted to play at the college level, (and) Emporia was the perfect fit,” Hanf said. “They showed the most interest in me from the start, and I got along with the coaches and other players well. The fact that they had continued success was great, too.”

Laura Spradling, sophomore elementary education major, who also attended high school with Hanf in Paola, said Hanf was somewhat of a celebrity in high school.

“Everybody knew who Rachel was at our school because she was so good at basketball,” Spradling said. “It’s hard not to get into the game when you have someone with her talent on the court, and it’s cool that I can watch her in college now, too.”

As a freshman at ESU, Hanf was named MIAA Freshman of the Year after scoring 17 points against Missouri Western and 10 points in the win over #1-ranked Gannon University. She kept up the intensity throughout her sophomore year, averaging 10.8 points per game and scoring a career high 20 points against Southwest Baptist.

This year, Hanf already has over 250 points and is 23rd highest scorer in all-time scoring at ESU.

“It’s not something I ever thought about,” Hanf said. “I just tried to play my best, game by game.”

Hanf said, as a team, she would like the Lady Hornets to win the MIAA regular season and play as far as possible in the NCAA tournament this year.

“For myself, I want to try to become more of a leader for the team, being a senior and all,” she said.

But Hanf’s teammates said she already leads by example.

“In every tight game, she steps up and makes big plays that give our team the confidence to make big runs that can be the deciding factor in games,” said Merissa Quick, sophomore forward and crime and delinquency studies major. “She’s a great teammate and is always looking to improve herself and the team.”

Although this is her final year to play basketball, Hanf said she would like to still help out with the team until she graduates next December, but she currently has no plan for after graduation.

Lady Hornets falter in front of alumni

Sophomore forward Sarah Wood goes for a layup from Northeastern State University on Saturday, Feb. 23. The Lady Hornets lost 66-56.
Will Austin/The Bulletin

On a day when several alumni were in attendance, Emporia State hung up former Lady Hornet Ali Volkens’ jersey. Volkens led the Hornets to the 2010 national championship.

“I was really proud of Ali – (it’s) well deserved,” said Rachel Hanf, senior guard and marketing major, who was also on that championship team. “She’s a good player,”

But the Lady Hornets were not able to secure a win as they dropped their second game in a row to Northeastern State, 66-56, Feb. 23 after winning nine straight games.

“(There were) kids here who put work in (during their time at ESU) for a lot of years and a had lot of success – I was embarrassed,” said Jory Collins, head coach. “That’s not how you want to perform in front of those guys (alumni).”

As a team, the Lady Hornets shot just over 31 percent from deep and just barely over 44 percent from the field.

“It’s really frustrating when we are missing shots, but when we are missing shots, we need to get rebounds,” said Laura Patrick, junior forward and accounting major.

Patrick led the way with 14 points but had to take 16 shots to get there. She got things going early for the team as she scored five quick points to help take a 12-9 lead in the first six minutes.

The RiverHawks snatched the lead with over 10 minutes to go, and they carried that into the half with a 37-33 lead.

After a soft puncture in the deficit, the Lady Hornets found themselves within four points of the RiverHawks with seven minutes to go, but Taylor Lewis of the RiverHawks took back control of the game.

She nailed a three-pointer with over five minutes to go to extend their lead 60-44. She finished the game with 26 points.

“We had breakdowns, but she’s (Lewis) a shot maker,” Collins said. “She’s shooting 50 percent from the three-point line. We didn’t have anyone on our team to guard her.”

The Lady Hornets, who were in contention before this two-game skid for the conference championship, now have to win out.

“We are not in that race anymore,” Collins said. “We haven’t beat any good teams all year long. We just haven’t been very tough, and now we are going to have to win the tournament to play any post-season play.”

The ladies take on Pittsburg State at 1:30 p.m. March 2 on the Gorillas’ home turf.

Hornets speed away with wins on the road

In Emporia State’s last on-the-road basketball bout before a three-game home stand, both men’s and women’s teams came out victorious Feb. 16 at Missouri Southern. The women kept things rolling with a 62-55 win, and the men staged a furious comeback, 69-66.

The Lady Hornets won their nineth straight game, but it wasn’t very pretty. Both teams combined for 57 turnovers, and despite the Hornets losing both their posts in the final six minutes, they still managed to get the win.

After a scrum over a loose ball in front of the Hornets’ bench, Sarah Wood, sophomore forward, received a foul and a technical and was taken out of the game. Merissa Quick, sophomore forward, was ejected from the game for leaving the bench during the scramble.

Despite getting ejected, Quick led the game with 18 points. Rachel Hanf, senior guard, and Laura Patrick, junior guard, joined her in the double figures with 13 and 12 points respectively.

The men improved their record to 11-11 after overcoming an 11-point deficit at the half. The Hornets went on a 13-0 run early in the second half, thanks to 65 percent shooting, and they took the lead, 46-45, with 14:32 minutes to go.

Kaleb Wright, junior guard, led the furious comeback with 23 points. Paul Bunch, junior center, added 16 of his own in his fifth double-double of the season. Chris Sights, senior guard, was the only other player in double-figures with 11 points.

Both teams look to carry these wins over into the three game home stand, including Saturday’s matchup against Northeastern State.

Senior scores 1,000th point as ESU bucks Bronchos, 89-57

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This past Sunday was a historic day for Rachel Hanf, senior guard for the women’s basketball team and marketing major. She not only became the 26th Lady Hornet to score 1,000 points in her career, but she also had a career high 23 points in an 89-57 victory over the Bronchos of University Central Oklahoma at White Auditorium.

“It’s really special,” Hanf said. “There have been a lot of great players come through here, and to be in the same list as them is pretty neat.”

Before the game, Hanf was 15 points shy of the 1,000 point mark. Last night, she scored 25 points in a match against University of Nebraska at Kearney, breaking her career high yet again. The Hornets won, 88-53.

During Sunday’s match, Hanf scored four of the first six points for Emporia State. But five minutes in, the Bronchos controlled the scoreboard, 11-6.

Sarah Wood, junior forward, tied it up with a turnaround bank from inside the paint with 12 minutes to go in the half.

After seven minutes, neither team was able to pull away, until the Hornets began to catch fire from the deep. In the final five minutes of the half, ESU pulled away with three three-pointers from Hanf, including her 1,000 point mark.

Desiree Wylie, junior forward, added two of her own, including one at the buzzer, giving the Hornets a 49-29 lead at the half.

“Our game plan coming in was to…set up our offense,” said Laura Patrick, junior forward and accounting major. “In the early going, we struggled with that, but around the 10 minute mark, we did a lot better job.”

ESU kept their momentum in the second half and continued to shoot the ball from the deep. Rheanna Egli, junior guard, led the way in the second with 11 points, as the Lady Hornets went on to win their third straight game during their three-game home stretch.

“We didn’t have a good record, and we knew we needed to get these three,” said Jory Collins, head coach. “It’s not enough though. We are still behind, and we still have to climb.”

The Hornets take on Northwest Missouri State at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 2 in Maryville, Mo.

Lady Hornets hold off MW

Junior guard Rheanna Egli dribbles the ball down court last night at White Auditorium. The Lady Hornets won 68-52 against Missori Southern State.
Yohan Kim/The Bulletin

The Lady Hornets kicked off a three-game home stand, the first of which took place Sunday when they welcomed the Griffons of Missouri Western. From the opening tip, the Lady Hornets controlled the tempo of the game as they went on to win 62-55.

“Our goal was hold them to the 50s, and we knew that would be big for our offense if we did that,” said Laura Patrick, junior guard and accounting major.

The Lady Hornets got an early lead with a 12-4 run. The Griffons tied it at 14-14 with a layup with just fewer than nine minutes to go.

“Sarah (Wood) sparked us in the first half with two huge positions with a one and one and another baseline shot she got to go,” said head coach Jory Collins.

The Hornets led by as many as eight points in the first half, but with 48 seconds left they went into the locker room with just a four-point lead, thanks to a Griffon three-pointer.

Defense was the key in the second half, as the Hornets forced the Griffons to keep firing from the deep, despite shooting 0 percent in the half, as they went 0-10 from long range.

“We knew coming in their strength was to drive it,” said Merissa Quick, sophomore forward and crime and delinquencies major. “If we could force them to shoot perimeter shots and we get the rebound we would win.”

Quick hauled in nine total rebounds.

Emporia State had three girls score in double-digit points. Patrick led the way with 17 points and a team high of six assists. Rachel Hanf knocked down three baskets from long range to finish with 12 points, and Quick added 11 of her own.

Ladies secure second straight win

Desiree Wylie, junior forward, defends the ball against Newman Tuesday night at White Auditorium. The Lady Hornets beat the Jets, 77-66.
Jordan Storrer/The Bulletin

Starting slow in the first half and trailing Newman 8-12, the Lady Hornets basketball team stepped up their game, ultimately winning 77-66 to continue their undefeated run at White Auditorium Tuesday night.

“I was happy we won. That is about the extent of the positive,” said Head Coach Jory Collins. “I wasn’t really happy with our defensive effort or our offensive execution. We had a lot of careless turnovers just trying to feed the post…we didn’t play with a sense of urgency.”

With 10 minutes left in the first half, Emporia State took a 20-13 lead after a three-point play off of a foul by sophomore forward and undecided major Merissa Quick. Quick had 11 points in the first half, helping the Hornets cushion their lead to 44-31.

“Offensively, we are going to work on feeding the post. It sounds like a really simple thing, but it’s difficult for us to do,” Collins said. “We have to be able to throw it into those guys that are open, and I feel like we missed them a ton of times. But when we got it in there, good things were happening.”

The Hornets extended their lead to 20 with a little over 12 minutes left in the second half with two free throws from junior guard and nursing major Haley Parker. The Hornets shot 77.8 percent from the free throw line.

“We have so much support from the community and all these people that have been coming to games for years and years,” Parker said. “We definitely don’t want to let them down, and we take a lot of pride winning here at home.”

Overall, the Lady Hornets shot 39.7 percent from the field, making 25 for 63. Quick was the player of the game, shooting seven for nine from the floor and seven for 10 from the free throw line, for a total of 21 points.

“The guards did a good job of getting me the ball when I was open, and we just made the open play,” Quick said.

This was the second straight year the Hornets have opened the regular season against Newman and the 16th straight year they have won their home opener. Next Friday, the Hornets travel to Pueblo, Colo. to take on Western State at 2 p.m. Friday, and Colorado State at 6 p.m. Saturday.

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