Eudora ? It’s tough to lose when you make nine shots in a row, and Seabury Academy didn’t.

Nevertheless, the Seahawks struggled to subdue Veritas Christian in a boys basketball battle of Lawrence private schools at the Eudora Learning Center.

Seabury (7-2) went on its nine-in-a-row run in the third quarter and held on for a 53-45 victory Friday night on the home floor of the Eagles (7-6).

Informed of the Seahawks’ smoking third quarter, junior forward Skylar Malone was stunned.

“Wow, that’s incredible,” Malone said. “That’s the best run I’ve seen in my career.”

Seabury needed that sizz after its dreadful start. The Seahawks missed eight of their first nine shots and fell into a 15-4 canyon after the first quarter.

“We were kind of anxious,” Seabury coach Mike Harding said. “But we settled down when we finally got some shots to fall.”

No doubt the Seahawks were a bit out of synch early, too, because regulars Dan Simons and Bill Gibbs weren’t in the starting lineup. Simons was ill, and Gibbs was sitting because of a what Harding termed a “team rule violation.”

Gibbs sat the first four minutes before Harding sent the 6-foot-1 senior guard to the scoring table and told him to report in. When it was all over, Gibbs had scored a game-high 19 points.

“He responded the way I wanted him to,” Harding said. “He wanted to show me he could do it, and he did.”

Malone finished with 14 points, and Reed Grabill added 11.

Twin guards Nate and Ethan Scott led the Eagles with 16 and 11 points, respectively.

“(Gibbs) is a good ball player, and that really helped them,” Veritas coach Gary Hammer said. “They caught fire, and we just didn’t shoot very well.”

Both teams had 19 field goals, but the Eagles took 52 shots and the Seahawks only 38. Also, Seabury had seven three-pointers to three for Veritas.

“We lost to a good team, but we have to put this behind us,” Hammer said, “get ready to play tomorrow.”

The Eagles will entertain Midland Adventist at 8:15 p.m today. Seabury’s next game will be Tuesday at University Academy.