Five players reached double figures as Northwest vaulted into a first place tie in the MIAA with an 86-67 win over Emporia State Saturday night. The Hornets, who are the defending national champions, started off this year with a new coach and four starters who are freshmen and sophomores. They also featured Alli Volkens, the MVP off last year's defending national championship squad. But when a new coach comes to town, they will always want to do something different, which can mean subpar performances. The Hornets are not going anywhere the next few years -- the freshmen and sophomore-based squad is still 12-4. But it was Northwest who came out and played to win, knocking off the Hornets 86-67.
Northwest came into the game on a 9-game winning streak. But they had a lot to prove despite their 13-2 record -- they were still not ranked despite their sparkling record. But they are in control of their own destiny despite their two conference losses -- Washburn lost 87-83 to UNO, vaulting Northwest into a tie with the Ichabods for first. Northwest will play Washburn tonight in Maryville for the conference lead. The Bearcats have not won a title since their 1983-1984 squad did so under the late Wayne Winstead, but they will have a shot at doing so if they win. With the loss, Emporia drops to third and will need to beat Washburn and hope that the winner of the Northwest-Washburn game falters somewhere down the line. That is possible -- Washburn barely beat tailender Lincoln 52-42 at home. Any can beat anybody else on any given night in the MIAA. To win, Washburn will have to put it all together -- they struggled defensively in their loss to UNO and struggled offensively in their squeaker over Lincoln.
Kyla Roehrig and Gentry Dietz took turns shutting down Alli Volkens, who scored her points against Northwest but shot 5 for 14 from the field and fouled out down the stretch right when they needed her. Northwest outrebounded Emporia 48-31 as the Hornets were outrebounded for the first time all year in their loss; Kyla was an animal on the boards as she got 16 of them against the Hornets. Dietz did not play in the first game and having her back made all the difference in the world as she battled foul trouble for the second straight game but was effective when she was in there, getting 14 points in just 23 minutes. Northwest shot 41.7% from the field, including a 46.4% clip in the second half when they hung 51 on Emporia. In the first meeting between the two teams, Northwest rallied from a big deficit, but couldn't buy a stop when they needed one; however, this time they did as they held Emporia to 28 points and 27.8% shooting in the second half.
Leading the way for Northwest was Abby Henry with 26 points. Abby, who had been fighting a slump, came out of it with a vengeance, going 16 for 17 from the line to match a school record. She got back on track by attacking the basket a lot more than normal and getting on the line. She had been finding the open person a lot during that stretch, getting two 9-assist efforts; she had a game-high seven in Saturday's win. Northwest won the game on the free throw line as much as anything as they made 30 free throws to 14 for Emporia. Northwest shot 30 for 37 from the line in the win.
With Northwest guarding the paint and helping on Volkens every chance they could get, it was up to Emporia's shooters to shoot them out of it and they succeeded in the early going, getting some downtown shots from Lacy Corker and Rachel Hanf. But Northwest countered with Abby Henry as she made some plays early to help her team keep pace. She found Gentry in the paint for a layup, got a pair of free throws, and got a steal that led to a Gabby Curtis layup as Northwest led 10-8; the latter play promoted an Emporia timeout.
Volkens tried to establish herself as she got a putback with 14:16 left to put the Hornets up 12-10 but neither side couild take control despite Dietz picking up her second foul and sitting down. Abby Henry drove on Volkens and hit two free throws and then Gabby Curtis knocked a ball loose in backcourt after Tara Roach had missed a shot and scored to put Northwest back up 14-12. Northwest would not go away despite Gentry on the bench because Tara Roach came off the bench and made several of her trademark hustle plays in the same vein of April Miller; on one such play, Emporia tried to lob it in the paint to Volkens, only for Tara Roach to come from the weak side to knock the pass out of there to Ashley Thayer; that led to an Abby Henry jumper that made it 18-15 Northwest with 10:28 left.
Emporia continued to launch from downtown as Rachel Hanf and Jessen Tucker each hit 3's to put the Hornets back in front at 25-21, but Gentry Dietz came back in and Abby Henry hit a pair of free throws off a drive, Dietz hit a pair of free throws, and then Abby Henry found Dietz inside following a Shelly Martin steal to tie it back up at 27. Tara Roach made another hustle play as she saved an errant pass from going out of bounds to Dietz for a layup and then the Henry to Roehrig combination worked for two as Northwest went back up 32-31 with 3:09 left in the hald. But Northwest went cold, only managing a free throw from Kyla Roehrig against Volkens as Kelsey Newman hit a 3-pointer for Emporia that sparked a run to put them up 39-33 with 35.5 seconds left. Roach hit Kyla in the paint with 13 seconds left off a high-low play to make it 39-35 at the break.
For Northwest to win, they had to do what they couldn't in the first game -- buy some stops and not get too far behind. They had to shut down Emporia's 3-point shooters as Emporia had seven going into the lockerroom. Dietz, who picked up two fouls right off the bat, needed to stay in the game as she was effective when she was on the floor. Only four people were in the scoring column at that point for Northwest and they needed to get more people involved. They succeeded on all three counts.
The first four minutes didn't give any indication of what was to come as Northwest overextended a couple of times in transition, leading to easy Emporia buckets. From the field, they only managed one free throw, but managed to keep their deficit at four thanks to free throws from Abby Henry, who kept attacking the basket. But then Tara Roach came in and it was like a light switched on -- Northwest went from down four to up ten while she was on the floor during that stretch as Emporia suddenly couldn't find a handle on the ball.
Shelly Martin, who hadn't scored a point for Northwest up to that point, all of a sudden got loose off a Gentry Dietz screen and Abby Henry threw her a perfect skip pass for a 3-pointer and all of a sudden, Northwest was up 45-44 with 15:12 left. Abby Henry went to the basket and drew Rachel Henf's third foul and hit both free throws to make it 47-44. Volkens got a putback for Emporia but then Abby Henry, sensing Martin heating up, found her for another 3-pointer to make it 50-46. Martin then got a steal off the press and Northwest missed two layup attempts. But Martin got an offensive board -- her only rebound of the game -- and got a perfect ball screen from Tara Roach which sprung her loose for her third 3-pointer in less than two minutes to make it 53-46 with 13:31 left.
Emporia burned a timeout at that point, but Shelly Martin found Kyla Roehrig in the paint to make it a 9-point game. Tucker Jenssen got a jumper to stop the run following an offensive board by Emporia, but then Gabby Curtis, who had been quiet up to that point, scored off a drive and 3-point play to make it 58-48 with 11:50 left.
The run continued as two possessions later, the Emporia coach got into a big argument with the referee over the non-call of a foul. The Emporia coach tried to get in the last word and drew a technical for saying too much and Martin knocked down both free throws. Northwest turned it over, but then Gentry knocked loose an errant pass at midcourt right to Abby Henry, whose layup capped the run at 62-48 with 10:38 left in the game.
Emporia tried to follow Central's lead and switched to a zone look to try and stop Northwest from driving at will on them and it bought them a couple of valuable possessions as Lacy Corker got going inside and Hanf added a pair of free throws to make it 10 with 8:44 left. But then Roach was there again for Northwest as Northwest got the ball into her in the post and she kicked it out to Gabby Curtis on the left wing. Curtis' 3-pointer bounced high off the rim almost 20 feet in the air and dropped in just as Emporia had thoughts of cutting it to 7 or 8. On the next possession, Roach lost the ball in the post but hustled after it and drew a foul on Volkens and knocked down both free throws to make it 67-52 with 7:55 left.
But then Emporia went to a halfcourt trap and it looked like it would be another Cardiac Cat II moment as they got steals and layups on three consecutive possessions as they used a 6-0 run to trim it to 67-58 with 6:33 left. Shades of the Central Missouri game were flashing through everyone's minds, where the Mules erased a 16-point second half deficit to take the lead before Shelly Martin's 3-pointer bailed Northwest out. In that game, Central had used their zone defense effectively to take away Northwest's drives down the stretch.
But Northwest settled down and got back on track by attacking the trap and doing a better job of finding the open person on offense. Roach set a perfect screen for Shelly Martin and Abby Henry was there for the feed against the trap and Martin's badly-needed 3-pointer put the lead back up in double digits at 70-58.
Free throws by Henry kept it at 12 at 72-60 with 5:51 left, but then Jocelyn Cummings hit a guarded 3-pointer and there followed a frantic sequence in which neither side could take care of the bal. Finally, Emporia got a steal off the trap and Rachel Hanf went in for a layup attempt, but Gabby Curtis stripped her of the ball and went off to the races on the other end for a layup to make it 74-63 with 4:45 left. That was a critical play because it was a four point swing in Northwest's favor. Shelly Martin took a charge on defense and then Kyla Roehrig got an offensive board and Jocelyn Cummings' fifth foul in the process and hit both free throws to make it 76-63.
Aided by an assist by the officials, who called a phantom foul on Kyla when Alli Volkens fell even though Kyla never touched her, Emporia took advantage with a pair of free throws from Volkens and a steal off the trap and score from Rachel Hanf to make it 76-67 with 3:01 left, still plenty of time. Gentry Dietz drew Alli Volkens' fourth foul and made one out of two to make it 77-67 and Emporia needed a bucket to make it 7 or 8 again. But the help defense in the post, which was there all night, was there again as Kyla Roehrig got a steal in the paint. On the ensuing possession, Abby Henry provided the dagger as she drove straight down the left side of the paint, banked home the runner, and drew the foul for the 3-point play to make it 80-67 with 2:05 left in the game, a play which seemed to take all the energy out of Emporia's sails.
Emporia missed a 3-pointer on the end and Northwest ran time off the clock. Abby Henry's layup attempt was blocked out of bounds, but with 1:20 left and five seconds on the shot clock and everyone knowing who the ensuing inbounds play was going to, Abby Henry lobbed it into Kyla Roehrig anyway and drew Volkens' fifth foul as Roehrig hit both free throws to make it 82-67. Abby Henry added a pair of free throws and a floater in the lane with three seconds left on the shot clock as Northwest ran out the clock for the win.
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