The Emporia High School boys basketball team ran its winning streak to four games to begin the season with a 57-43 victory over Wichita Trinity on the final day of the Paul Terry Classic on Saturday afternoon. 

It was the second straight year Emporia went 3-0 in the Paul Terry Classic. The significance of winning this event is not lost on head coach Lee Baldwin. “The opportunity to win your own tournament, especially with the historical significance of what this tournament represents is extremely important,” Baldwin said. “It’s more important for us, so for us to be able to have that trophy is extremely gratifying and I’m really happy for our guys.”

The game was close early with Emporia trailing by three points before closing out the opening quarter with a 13-0 run to take an 18-8 lead. In his first extended action of the season, Cooper Rech converted an old fashioned three-point play, River Peters added a bucket and Sheldon Stewart scored eight points on his own with a bucket and two 3-pointers. “He carried us in the first half,” Baldwin said about Stewart. “He hit some very monumental threes that allowed us to continue our run into the second quarter, and that was the difference in the game. He was fantastic tonight.”

Stewart opened the second quarter with another 3-pointer to give the Spartans a 21-8 lead and Peters ripped off an 8-2 run by himself to make it a 19-point game at 29-10. Emporia would lead 32-17 at the half and lead by as many as 21 in the second half.

Peters led three Spartans in double figures with 17 points. Stewart added 15 and Rech had 14. Baldwin is impressed with what Rech was able to do with no practice time coming off an injury he suffered during football season. “Cooper has not gotten a competitive drill yet in practice,” Baldwin said. “His first contact was [Friday night against Hayden], so for him to have those numbers with no practice time is really incredible.”

After winning just four games two seasons ago and a trip to the sub-state final last year, Baldwin has instilled an expectation of winning in his program. “Our guys are bought in and they’re happy for each other,” Baldwin said. “But I think the biggest thing is we weren’t overly excited to win this because that’s the expectation. We’re getting to the point now where we expect to win, so we’re not going to puff out our chest and brag about winning this because that’s what the expectation is.” 

Emporia (4-0) will hit the road for the first time this season on Tuesday, Dec. 12 when they will head to Overland Park to take on Shawnee Mission North at 7 p.m.