@ Manhattan

The Emporia High School boys basketball team fell to Manhattan on Tuesday night, 47-36.

Manhattan led wire to wire in this one and jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead to begin the game. Two baskets from Cooper Rech cut the deficit to three, and each team made a basket as the Indians led 9-6 after the first eight minutes.

Manhattan opened the second quarter with a basket before River Peters made two of his own to make it a one-point game. But Manhattan embarked on a 16-2 run to make it 27-12. They led at the half, 27-16 after a 3-pointer from Nolan Jacob and a Rech free throw.

Emporia scored seven of the fist 10 points of the second half to make it a seven-point game, but Manhattan responded with an 11-2 run to take a 43-27 lead into the fourth quarter. The Spartans outscored the Indians 9-4 in the fourth quarter, but it would be too little too late.

Head coach Lee Baldwin said his team struggled with turnovers and shooting. “Some of the same problems are coming up again,” Baldwin said. “We had a lot of turnovers and didn’t shoot it well with quite a few good looks. It was just one of those nights where we struggled to score and just didn’t play well.”

Rech led Emporia with 11 points, while Harrison Trelc set a new career-high with nine and River Peters added eight.

Baldwin was glad to see Trelc play almost the entire game in his first career start. “It was great to see Harry play almost the entire game,” Baldwin said. “I thought he did a great job for his first start as a true freshman. Then Chase (Harrington) got a chance to play on the fourth quarter and did some really good things, so it was encouraging to have a freshman and sophomore do what they did tonight and have some positives to take away from that.”

Emporia (11-6) will host Junction City for senior night on Friday, Feb. 16. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Emporia JV 54

Manhattan JV 52

JV Record: 9-4

Emporia C 40

Manhattan C 54

C Record: 5-8