high school basketball Wise, Emporia down Heights

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Dec 15, 1999 by Ric Anderson Capital-Journal

--- David Eulitt/The Capital-Journal

Wise

Heights' players will tell you he's already become quite a nuisance.

Wise, an Emporia senior and Idaho signee, ripped Heights for 25 points to lead the Spartans to a 74-67 victory here Tuesday night. He also blocked 10 shots.

"He's a great player, and we have tremendous respect for him," T- Birds head coach Craig Cox said. "When you face a player who's that good, you have to step up. We knew he was a good shot blocker and we knew he could score points, and he did both things."

It was like the old Saturday Night Live skit where Steve Martin, playing a Roman soldier battling a band of Fifth Century marauders known as the Vandals, wound up stepping in a bag of burning dog doo and having to pay for a bunch of pizzas he didn't order.

Wise was everywhere, frustrating Heights at every turn. When he wasn't scoring inside, he was hitting one of his three 3-pointers. When he wasn't forcing a turnover, he was blocking shots. Heights' Jesse Schmidt saw five of his shots blocked or altered by Wise.

So Wise won the game, right? Not exactly, Schmidt said.

"It wasn't just Wise inside, it was their guards outside hitting 3's," he said, referring to the four 3-pointers made by Spartans other than Wise.

"There were just too many scorers. You shut down one area, and then they're hitting from outside. So you get out on them, and they start dishing and dunking."

Emporia got 18 points from senior guard Jay Carlson and 11 from junior Zell Pearson.

Heights was paced by Schmidt, who scored 20 while following Heights' game plan --- to take the ball directly at Wise.

"We knew he was gonna get some blocks, and we said, 'Fine, let's get some points, too,"' Cox said.

Another element of the game plan didn't work so well. The T-Birds hoped to land Wise in early foul trouble, but Wise didn't draw many whistles.

He did, however, draw some postgame sprints. Emporia head coach Rick Bloomquist put his team through an extra workout after becoming upset with the Spartans' fourth-quarter effort.

Emporia led by 12 heading into the final period but allowed Heights to close the gap to eight. The Spartans also went scoreless for much of the final 2:30 after senior Joel Gerdes drew his fifth foul and was hit with a technical foul.

"I wanted to get a little finish out of 'em," Bloomquist said.

"Basically, when it got tough and we got tired, we backed off. And if we're going to be a championship basketball team, we can't back off. So I wanted 'em to finish something for me tonight."

Shawnee Heights 18 13 15 21 --- 67Emporia 25 12 21 16 --- 74 Shawnee Heights (3-1) --- Bryant 3 0-0 6, Woodland 5 3-6 16, Denton 6 1-1 13, Finan 2 0-0 4, Schmidt 8 4- 6 20, Devlin 0 0-0 0, Hubbard 0 0-0 0, Collins 0 0-0 0, Dow 2 2-2 6, Kroenke 0 0-0 0, Torrez 1 0-0 2, Garrett 0 0-0 0. Totals 27 10-15 67.

Emporia (4-1) --- Clark 2 0-0 4, Pearson 5 1-4 11, Wise 10 2-2 25, Gerdes 3 0-0 7, Carlson 7 2-2 18, Proehl 0 0-0 0, Jenkins 0 0-0 0, Schnakenberg 0 0-0 0, Endes 4 0-0 9, Rodriguez 0 0-0 0, Conrade 0 0- 0 0. Totals 31 5-8 74.

3-point goals --- Heights 3 (Woodland 3), Emporia 7 (Wise 3, Carlson 2, Gerdes, Endes). Total fouls --- Heights 12, Emporia 16. Fouled out -

Gerdes. Technical fouls --- Emporia 1 (Gerdes).