The Emporia High School boys basketball team recorded its second victory of the season over Hayden, 59-52, at Emporia High School on Tuesday night.
Jalyn King set the tone early, scoring Emporia’s first nine points of the contest. The Spartans would lead 18-13 after the first eight minutes. King would add eight more in the second quarter as Emporia took a 34-27 lead into the half. “He put on a show in that first half,” head coach Lee Baldwin said. “He’s got those capabilities and it was fun to watch. I’m really happy for him. There were a couple of moments in there where he turned to the bench and it was just ‘wow’ moments. He’s fantastic and he gave us a level of confidence that we really needed.”
“We didn’t have the best practices coming into this game, so I wanted to come out with some energy and get my teammates going,” King added. “I have great teammates and we were able to get the win today.” The Spartans began the third quarter on an 8-2 run, but Hayden closed the gap quickly connecting on four straight three-pointers in a 12-0 run to make it a one-point game.
Emporia finally answered with a Cooper Rech three-pointer before Baldwin called a timeout. “Cooper hit a big three there and I called a timeout there and we talked about a couple of things that we needed to do a better job of,” Baldwin said. “We were able to extend the lead from there, so that was a big shot from Cooper in transition and it’s a credit to our guys for not falling apart.” Things would be close the rest of the way.
Emporia led by six after the third quarter and Hayden would cut the deficit to as little as two in the fourth quarter before the Spartans iced the game at the free-throw line down the stretch. Baldwin was glad to get back on track with a win after losing the last game before the break against Great Bend.
“I think there was an added significance because we were playing a high-quality team and we had two weeks to stew on a bad loss,” Baldwin said. “I think regardless of who we were playing, there was a sense of urgency to get back on the right track. I think this was the most important win we’ve had so far this year.” Emporia High’s bench scored 21 points, which coach Lee Baldwin says he enjoyed seeing the production being spread all around.
Emporia JV 43
Hayden JV 38
JV Record: 3-1
Emporia C 62
Hayden C 55
C Record: 2-1
