Eudora ? For the first 14 minutes of its game against Spring Hill, the Eudora High girls basketball team looked nothing like the group that entered the contest with a 2-4 record.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, there were 22 minutes left to play in their heartbreaking 52-51 overtime loss Thursday night at EHS.

“I just thought we gave up too early,” junior guard Michelle Deluna said. “We thought we had it, and we got pretty lax.”

Eudora popped out to 25-12 lead with 2:22 remaining in the first half, with the duo of sophomore Erin Kracl and senior Kayla Moyer combining to score 20 of those points. At that point, the Cardinals caught the turnover bug, and it would be a common theme the rest of the night.

Spring Hill’s Lauren Sykes stole two passes, blocked a shot and scored three points to lead the Broncos on an 8-0 run into the half, cutting their deficit to 25-20.

“They sat in a zone, and I told the kids just to dribble and pass and run the clock, but we made some turnovers, and they scored off of them,” Eudora coach Cara Kimberlin said. “That was a big change in momentum because they got the momentum going into the locker room.”

After returning to the floor, the Cardinals never were able to regain that momentum or their double-digit lead. Broncos forward Lacey Cunningham scored 15 of her game-high 27 points in the second half, mostly from within a few feet of the basket.

Spring Hill grabbed its first lead at 37-36 with just more than five minutes remaining in regulation. The Broncos’ Kara Erikson tied the game at 42 with :22.9 left on the clock. Then, coming out of a timeout, Eudora turned the ball over on the in-bounds pass, when the ball went off the hands of junior Carrie Lister.

The Cards found themselves in a similar situation at the end of overtime, trailing by one point with :17.3 remaining and again coming out of a full timeout. This time, when the intended play broke down, Deluna was caught in a trap near half court.

Eudora High's Brittney Graff, left, pushes past the defense of Spring Hill's Kelley Wheeler during the second half. The junior varsity game was one of three between the Cardinals and Broncos on Thursday in Eudora.

She attempted to throw the ball over her shoulder across the court to Kracl, but the ball went over Kracl’s head and out of bounds.

“I threw a pass that I shouldn’t have thrown in the first place,” Deluna said.

The two botched plays in pressure situations overshadowed a solid defensive effort by the Cardinals.

Kracl finished with 19 points to lead the way, while Moyer was the only other Eudora player in double figures with 14.

Even though Deluna felt the team’s effort might have fallen off a bit when Spring Hill worked itself back into the game late in the first half, Kimberlin still was impressed.

6Sports video: Eudora falls to Spring Hill in OT (01-13-05)

“We have taken strides in our play since Christmas,” Kimberlin said. “I don’t think we ever had a lack of effort. We’ve had three games since Christmas, and I don’t think we’ve had a game where we’ve quit playing by any means.”