Emporia State women’s basketball beat Wayne State College 87-82 on Nov. 13 at White Auditorium for their first home game of the season.
Emporia started off the game strong as they forced a stop on defense and followed it with a three-pointer by forward Faith Paramore to put the Hornets ahead in the first 30 seconds. Paramore continued to score and eventually scored 11 out of the 15 points ESU had heading into the first quarter media timeout. Wayne State fought back in the remaining 4 minutes to trim ESU’s lead and finish the first quarter 25-22.
The Wildcats took the lead by scoring five points as the second quarter began. The Hornets and Wildcats went back and forth over the next few minutes before ESU regained the lead 34-33, with 5:05 left in the half. The Hornets then built a 39-35 lead, before the Wildcats went on a 9-2 scoring run to lead by three points. With just 2:26 left in the half, the Wildcats led 44-41. In the remaining 2:26, Emporia State went on a 9-2 scoring run of their own. Graduate student Guard Katie Horyna scored a layup in the final minutes, helping Emporia State lead 50-46 at the half.
Continuing their momentum, ESU opened the second half with a 9-0 scoring run to create their biggest lead of the game with 59-46. The Wildcats trimmed ESU’s lead 70-64 over the final 8:29 of the quarter as the Hornets struggled to shoot.
Emporia State started on the offense as the final quarter began and led 78-69 with 7:21 remaining in the game. Wayne outscored ESU 5-0 in the next four minutes until Horyna made a layup with 3:10 left and brought ESU’s lead up 80-74. Despite Emporia maintaining a two possession lead, the Wildcats free throw closed Emporia State’s lead to 82-79 with 58 seconds left. With 33 seconds left, freshman forward Janiyah Alvarez scored a mid-range jump shot to expand the lead 84-79.
The Hornets then forced a turnover and got a free throw from Paramore to extend the lead to six. The Wildcats secured a three-pointer with only nine seconds remaining, but Paramore added on two more free throws to claim the 87-82 victory against the Wildcats.
Emporia State will be back in action on Nov. 22 at 7:00 p.m. for a non-conference matchup against East Central University in White Auditorium.