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Emporia State Rallies to Oust Fort Hays State
By David Boyce
An upset looked inevitable. Emporia State trailed Fort Hays State for over 32 minutes. The Hornets needed a senior to take charge.
They had three.
MIAA player of the year Cassondra Boston had a few moments. Senior Jamie Augustyn delivered three, momentum-changing three-pointers and senior Lacy Corker hit two critical free throws late in the game.
It all added up to No. 2 seed Emporia State pulling out a 72-66 come-from-behind victory over No. 7 seed Fort Hays Thursday evening in the quarterfinals of the MIAA Women's Basketball Tournament.
"The first half, Fort Hays was really good. I felt like the difference was Hays' seniors played like they wanted to play another game and competed harder than our seniors," said Emporia State coach Brandon Schneider, who got his 300th career victory.
"That's exactly what we said at halftime. In the second half I thought our seniors really stepped up and showed they do have a little something inside them. They competed much harder and made some big plays and got some big stops.
"But I can't commend Hays enough. They played their guts out."
The win was pretty dramatic for the Hornets, who improved to 24-4 and will play 2:15 p.m. Saturday.
Emporia State was behind 29-15 late in the first half and trailed 32-23 at halftime.
"I liked the way we got off to a good start, and we maintained our intensity for 40 minutes," Fort Hays coach Tony Hobson said. "We got a grade-A effort from our kids. We made a few too many errors down the stretch."
It still looked fairly bleak for the Hornets midway through the second half when they trailed 47-38.
"We knew we had to pick it up right then and there," said Boston, who finished with a game-high 23 points. "I kept stressing that every possession mattered. We couldn't take any possessions off."
The momentum really started to change for Emporia State when Augustyn hit a three-pointer that trimmed the Hornets' deficit to 47-43. A little later Augustyn hit another three that gave Emporia State its first lead at 51-49 with 7:25 left.
"I just did what I do," Augustyn said. "My teammates found me open and I shot it."
Emporia State even built a 55-49 lead, and that's when Fort Hays showed they still had some gas left in its tank.
The Tigers regained the lead at 57-56 on two free throws with 4:06 left.
"I'm proud of them," Hobson said. "The total mindset of our team is different. We got down six there and came back and got up three (61-58), and at that time I thought we were going to get them.
"We made our free throws when we did get to the line."
And so did the Hornets.
With 2:43 left, Emporia State took a 61-60 lead on two free throws by Corker.
"I looked up at the scoreboard after the first shot and realized every point, every rebound, everything mattered at this point in the game," Corker said.
The lead actually changed six times during a three-minute span. Emporia State went ahead for good on a basket by Boston that made it 64-63 with 1:52 remaining.
The Hornets solidified their lead on basket in the paint by junior Alli Volkens.
By this time the Tigers were running on empty. Emporia State built a 72-63 lead with 13 seconds left.
Still, Fort Hays got a special effort from its seniors, especially Erica Biel. She finished with 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field.
To reach David Boyce, contributing writer for the MIAA, e-mail dboyce@themiaa.com.
