The Emporia High School boys basketball team has its signature win, defeating Manhattan on the road, 41-39 on Tuesday night. Coach Lee Baldwin says the win is a good one to have on their resume.
“They've beaten Washburn Rural and McPherson, which are state-caliber teams, and we went into their place on one day of preparation and beat them,” Baldwin said. “That’s definitely the best win of our season and a win we can hang our hat on.”
The Indians scored the first six points of the game before Emporia embarked on a 20-6 run that would last into the second quarter. Jalyn King, who scored eight first-quarter points, got the Spartans on the board and a Parker Leeds 3-pointer cut the deficit to one. Manhattan answered with a basket but King scored four to give Emporia its first lead of the game at 9-8. River Peters ended the quarter with a 3-pointer to give Emporia a 14-10 lead. Emporia began the second quarter on a 6-2 run with baskets from King, Sheldon Stewart and Cooper Rech before Manhattan closed the first half with eight straight points to tie the game at 20. Baldwin credited his team’s effort on the defensive end.
“When they go 6’6”, 6’6”, 6’5” and we don't have anybody out there over 6’3”, and hold them to 39 points, we did some really good things defensively,” Baldwin said. “We made some adjustments in the 1-3-1 and fortunate for us, it worked.” The Spartans led 28-25 after the third quarter and Manhattan kept the game close in the fourth. But Emporia got some separation up two when Peters hit his second 3-pointer of the night to put the Spartans up five.
After Manhattan went one of two from at the free throw line, Emporia got baskets from King and Leeds to extend the lead to eight. But against a team of this caliber, Baldwin was not going to feel comfortable about a win too early. “I didn't feel comfortable until about eight seconds left, just because of what happened on Saturday,” Baldwin said. “But fortunately for us, we were in the bonus and had timeouts. So as long as we didn't do anything really bad, it was going to be tough for them to be able to come back when we were up by five or seven.”
Manhattan ended the game on a 6-0 run including a three at the buzzer, but it was too little, too late. King led Emporia with 15 points, while Peters added eight. Emporia (10-4) will have nine days off before traveling to Washburn Rural on Friday, Feb. 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Baldwin said his team will be in good spirits leading up to it. “It's huge because these are the dog days of the basketball season,” Baldwin said. “You have your midseason tournaments, you're in the stretch run of your regular season and this is when teams either take off or fall apart. For us to win this game and have a week off to work on some things, our guys are going to be really excited with a lot of belief. We control our destiny for everything that matters and I’m thankful to be a part of it.”
Emporia JV 47
Manhattan JV 48
JV Record: 6-4
C Tournament
Emporia C 50
Highland Park C 35
Emporia C 43
Seaman C 41
Emporia C 31
Washburn C 42
Emporia C 38
Manhattan C 70
C Record: 6-4
