Eudora ? A teary Rodney Spillman put everything he could on the floor for Eudora High in a 57-50 loss to Kansas City Ward on Tuesday night in the first round of Class 4A sub-state boys basketball.

Spillman put his team on his back right from the start of what would be the senior’s final game for Eudora. Spillman scored the Cardinals’ first eight points and had 10 of the team’s 15 points in the first quarter.

“He played his heart out,” Eudora coach Kyle Deterding said. “They all played hard. We just didn’t make enough plays in the end.”

Spillman shot 15 of 21 from the field to score a game-high 30 points, and continually caused fits for the Cyclones – until he found himself in foul trouble late in the second half.

With the Cardinals (14-7) trailing throughout the fourth quarter, Spillman picked up his fifth foul at the 1:54 mark and the Eudora players all but knew the game was lost.

“Finally, I ended up fouling out and I think everybody’s heads dropped,” said Spillman, who also had a team-high seven rebounds.

With Eudora needing to foul down the stretch, the Cyclones shot 10 of 14 from the free-throw line in the second half. The Cardinals were 0 for 1.

Eudora’s defense had difficulty controlling Ward’s perimeter play, and forced just seven turnovers – only two in the final half. However, on the offensive side of the ball, the Cardinals gave up the ball five times – including three in the final minute that let the Cyclones pull away for good.

“We didn’t want to get in a H-O-R-S-E game – you shoot, then I shoot,” Spillman said. “They’re unbelievable shooters … but we wanted to get up and down the court, take good shots and get after it as much as we could.”

But Eudora eventually had to fire away, especially from three-point range. The Cardinals were 5-of-14 from behind the arc, while Ward went 4 for 9.

Eudora senior Mark Abel finished with six points and seven assists.

“It was a good year … we just didn’t make enough shots tonight,” Deterding said. “They really battled all year long. I think they’d have taken 14 wins before the season started. It just didn’t end on the note we wanted it to.”