The Emporia High School boys basketball team ran away with a 70-41 victory over Spring Hill in the Paul Terry Classic at White Auditorium on Thursday night. 

“My philosophy is we’re going to play fast, get a lot of guys involved and more ownership with guys in playing and I think it’s fun to watch,” head coach Lee Baldwin said. “All of those things combined is a style that I hope we can continue to play.” The Spartans scored the first 15 points of the game and closed the quarter with a 17-5 advantage. 

While Baldwin was excited with the fast start, he noted it wasn’t necessarily a skill and his team has been fortunate to do so each of its first two games. “Every coach wants to get off to a good start,” Baldwin said. “We like to press early, get the jitters out and see if the other team is ready to play or not. It’s not a skill by any means. We’ve just been fortunate to get off to two really good starts. Hopefully, we can continue that but it’s really not something you can control.

”Emporia led 34-15 at the half and 59-29 at the end of the third quarter. With a 30-point lead, the clock was running for the entirety of the fourth quarter. “We just wanted to get them running right off the bat and make it a track meet,” said Parker Leeds, who led Emporia with 13 points. “Obviously, we know that’s our strength. We watched their film and they were jogging down the floor, so we took that to our advantage.” 

A total of 10 Spartans scored in the contest and Baldwin was glad to see a lot of players make an impact, especially with two more games coming up over the next two days. “To have 10 different guys score in a game is pretty impressive,” Baldwin said. “And, in a tournament-style format with three games in three days, we’re going to need to be able to play a lot of guys.” 

Coach Lee Baldwin enjoyed the start, as Emporia will look to get ready for Day Two of the tournament when it will take on Hayden at 8:15 on Friday night. Baldwin is looking forward to will be what he considers his team’s first real test. “We got here early to watch the Hayden game,” Baldwin said. “They’re really good and are extremely well-coached. They finished third at the state tournament last year and are a really well-balanced team with some size. We’re going to have our hands full for sure but I’m excited because this is the first true test of our season to really see where we stand.”