Basketball Team Wins State Championship

By Ryan McCabe

It was an unforgettable year for the Eudora boys basketball team, finishing the regular season with a 16-5 record and winning the sub-state tournament. Then they were state bound. The team headed to Park City to play in the state tournament and came home state champions.

With the help of some returning seniors like Andrew Ballock, Skylar Shockley, Zach Scroggin and Austin Wellman, the Cardinals welcomed some new faces to the team who played a big role in their championship run. Although they weren’t with the team last year, freshman Mitchell Ballock and sophomore Austin Downing fit in with the rest of the team really well and had a big contribution in the team’s success from the beginning of the year all the way to the end.

“It was a real easy transition for me, having great teammates helped out a lot,” said Downing when asked about the transition for playing with a new team.

It wasn’t a smooth road for the Cardinals. Four out of their five losses came in the first month and a half of the season. Their first two losses came in the first two games of the season against Spring Hill and Bonner Springs. Even though they were losses, it was easy to see that the team was on their way to bigger and better things, losing to Spring Hill by just two in overtime and to Bonner Springs by six. After that, the Cards went on a hot streak, losing only one more game in the final 2 months in the season finishing the entire year with a 20-5 record.

“The first two games helped us figure out the depth of our team. At the time, two of our starters were injured so we had to rotate guys into the game unit they got healthy,” said Coach Deterding.

The team’s run to the state title began when they beat Osawatomie in the sub-state finals on their home court. That win earned them the right to go to the state championship where they faced off against Holton.

The Cardinals faced Holton on Thursday, March 13. It was a close game the entire way until eventually the Cardinals pulled away in the second half. They won the game by a score of 48-32.

Their first round win set up their game against Andale the following night. All the fans who made the long drive were in for a real treat. The game started off a little differently than the first.  The Cards fell down early in the game. After the first quarter, they gradually worked their way back into the game and by the time the fourth quarter rolled around it was neck and neck. After the inbounds play, Downing made a layup that gave the Cards a one point lead with 7 seconds to go. Andale did not have any timeouts and were unable to score again giving the Cardinals a trip to the championship game.

They played against Scott City the following night. The Cardinals were in for a tough game since Scott City had won the 3A championship 3 years in a row. The Cards came out strong in the first quarter and built an early lead. Scott City wasn’t done however they tried to make a late comeback in the game. The Cardinals made some big shots to stop the comeback and won with the final score of 71-58.