Eudora wins; BHS falls

Cards clip K.C. Ward; Highland Park rips Baldwin

? Eudora High’s boys basketball coach Scott Stein is about as intense as they come.

There definitely was no shortage of vocal instruction from Stein Monday night when his team opened the Cardinals Invitational with a 41-37 victory over Kansas City Ward at the new Eudora High gym.

But just when one would have though Stein really would have lost his cool, he instead calmly called a timeout and issued careful instructions to his team.

“There was really no need for him to say anything. We could all see it in his eyes,” Cardinals guard Josh Lauer said of the timeout Stein called immediately after his team allowed the Cyclones to go on a 10-0 run in an 80-second span late in the fourth quarter.

“Plus, we knew what we were doing wrong,” continued Lauer, who led the Cardinals with 13 points in their second win of the season.

What Eudora wasn’t doing right was handling Ward’s full-court press.

But after that timeout, Eudora had no problems.

The Cardinals — who saw their 11-point, second-half lead evaporate to one, 36-35, with 4:04 to play because of four straight turnovers — composed themselves against the press and closed the game with a 5-2 run.

While Stein might have saved his voice down the stretch, he probably will have plenty of opportunities to teach his team again tonight. The Cards will square off against Class 5A’s top-ranked team, Topeka Highland Park, which beat Baldwin, 60-43, in the tournament’s final first-round contest.

Eudora's Josh Brouhard, center, tries to fight through a Kansas City Ward double-team during the Cardinals' 41-37 victory. Eudora will face Topeka Highland Park in tonight's second round of the Cardinal Invitational at EHS.

Belton (Mo.) High beat Kansas City Turner in the first game, 84-40, while Kansas City Piper held off a late Paola attack to claim a 56-53 victory. Belton will face K.C. Piper at 7 tonight, and Eudora will take on Highland Park at 8:30 p.m.

The more athletic Scots of High Park didn’t just run away from the Bulldogs, though.

Despite allowing Highland Park to open the game with a 13-2 run, Baldwin battled back.

Baldwin slowed the clock by passing the ball around the perimeter, then received a break when the Scots’ best player, James Williams — who led his team with 13 points — picked up his third foul early in the second quarter.

Stellar play by Baldwin senior Andy Hannon, who scored a game-high 17 points, and clutch shooting by Ben Knoll, who added 12, kept the Bulldogs close, as they trailed just 23-19 with a little less than three minutes to go in the second half.

But Highland Park guards Joe Kingcannon (nine points) and Hank Harris (10), and forwards B.J. Spann (12) and Theron Wilson (12) provided enough scoring while Williams sat on the bench. When he returned late in the second half, the Scots’ talent took over.

Despite the loss, Baldwin coach Jeff Haas said he was pleased with his team’s performance against such a talented team early in the season.

“We already knew that we would be able to play with them,” Haas said. “It might have reconfirmed that though.

“The thing about this team is that we are so much more experienced than last year, so we really think than we can play with a lot of teams. But there’s no question that they are very, very talented.”