Eudora High junior Austin Downing has seen the Tweets and heard all of the talk.

He knows people are expecting the boys basketball team to struggle without sophomore All-State combo guard Mitchell Ballock, who is out with a stress fracture in his left foot. Ballock hopes to return by their first game in January.

But the Cardinals have done their best to prove everybody wrong. They have opened the year with a 2-1 record heading into their final game of the Paola Invitational at 6:30 tonight against Truman (Mo.).

Downing has carried Eudora on offense, averaging 27.3 points per game. Senior forward Zhade Wray is second on the team with nearly six points each night.

“I just try to do what I can to help,” Downing said. “I mean everybody else has pitched in a lot too, playing defense, rebounding, getting me the ball, setting screens for me. So it’s not just like I’m scoring by myself, they’re helping me a lot. But yeah, we’re doing pretty good as a team right now.”

The Cardinals won a state championship at Class 4A-II last year, but were bumped up to 4A-I this year. They’ve only practiced five times without Ballock, and are still figuring out roles for the rest of the varsity rotation, which includes Trey Byrne, Grant Elston, Griffin Katzenmeier, Laken Straub and Mason Fawcett, among others.

“We don’t really look at wins and losses. We’re just worried about getting better,” EHS coach Kyle Deterding said. “Wins and losses take care of themselves. By the time we get to February, then they’ll be a little more important, but right now we’re working day to day.”

Ballock, a 6-foot-4 guard who has four scholarship offers including one from Kansas University, started feeling pain last week and it continued to worsen until he couldn’t play through it any more at a scrimmage on Saturday. He had X-rays on Monday and an MRI on Tuesday, and is now in a walking boot.

“It’s really tough sitting there knowing when you probably could make an impact in a game or something,” said Ballock, who averaged 20 points and eight rebounds per game last year. “Knowing that you can’t do it until after Christmas or however long I’m out for, it’s extremely tough not being able to do anything about it.”

But even without one of their stars, the Cardinals are confident that they can win before he returns to the court, and especially once he comes back.

“Me and Mitch, we know that we’re going to have to try to lead this team,” Downing said. “But there’s some other people who have the ability to lead and help us out a lot.”