Eudora junior Noah Katzenmeier drives the ball down the court past Truman junior Caleif Gregg in the first half of Eudora's game against Truman on Monday, Dec. 5 at Eudora.

Eudora ? It’s not always easy for Eudora senior Mitchell Ballock to measure up to such lofty expectations.

Which is why Monday’s 29-point effort to lead Eudora over Truman (Mo.), 74-64, left a little to be desired. Especially given that it came just a few days after Ballock dropped 41 points in a win over Spring Hill to open the season.

“For a normal person, that wouldn’t have been that much struggling,” coach Kyle Deterding said. “For him, he did miss those shots he usually makes. But he’s involved in so many other ways. Even when his shots aren’t falling he’s such a huge part of what we are trying to get done.”

But Ballock (9-of-25 from the floor) still did what he needed to do to lead his team to a win at Eudora High in the first round of the Paola Invitational.

Ballock got his teammates involved, as two fellow Cardinals netted double figures. Senior David Hornberger recorded 12 points (6-of-6 shooting), while sophomore Rock Jerome scored 11 (4-of-6), all of which came in the final period.

“(Jerome) stepped up,” Ballock said. “He’s young and he’s still getting comfortable into the new role. He hasn’t played varsity in forever so this is good. He’s a good finisher around the rim. But he really took the pressure off on offense.”

Ballock opened the game as if he was looking to repeat his 41-point performance. The Creighton signee knocked down five of his first seven shots — including four in a row — to open the first quarter with 11 points.

As a result, EHS stormed out to an early lead. After the Patriots scored the game’s first bucket, the Cardinals (2-0) scored 13 unanswered points. Their lead would increase to 21-6 by the end of the opening period.

“We want to win (the tournament),” Ballock said. “We just started here and got the ‘W’, no matter if its ugly win or not. Just get the win and keep moving on. Hopefully we can pick it up on defense tomorrow and play the whole 32 minutes and get us to the championship.”

Ballock was then unable to hit a single one of his seven attempts in the second quarter. He only hit a pair of field goals in the third on the same number of attempts, which left a tall task for a number of young Eudora players, who are just getting their first real look at the varsity level. Junior Noah Katzenmeier bottomed a pair of treys over that span, while sophomore Jayden Pierce hit a couple shots.

In the meantime, the defense held its own to maintain the double-digit advantage.

“We have a lot of kids getting their first meaningful minutes of varsity,” Deterding said. “I told the guys it’s going to take a while to find our identity and what we can do and who is going to do what.”

Truman made a late surge in the final quarter of play, trimming the deficit to below 11 for the first time since the opening minutes.

However, the margin never got closer than eight, as Jerome and Ballock scored a combined 20 of the team’s 22 points in the final period.

“(Jerome) finished a couple of those,” Deterding said. “There is going to be opportunities for guys to get some open looks. Brock took advantage of it. It’s nice to see him go up and make those.”

EHS will travel to Paola at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to take on Olathe Northwest.

Truman (64)

Donald Edmondson 8-14 2-2 22, Max Titus 6-16 5-5 19, Keaton Wiley 6-8 1-2 16, Zion Piper 1-7 2-6 4, Nikolas Tanner 1-2 0-1 2, Jordan Mabry 0-1 0-0 0. Total: 22-51 11-18.

Eudora (74)

Mitchell Ballock 9-25 10-11 29, David Hornberger 6-6 0-0 12, Rock Jerome 4-6 3-3 11, Hayden Brown 3-8 0-1 7, Noah Katzenmeier 2-2 0-0 6, Ryan Verbanic 2-4 0-0 5, Jayden Pierce 2-4 0-0 4. Total: 28-55 13-15.

Truman 6 12 18 28 — 64

Eudora 21 13 18 22 — 74

Three-point goals: Truman 9-19 (Edmondson 4, Wiley 3, Titus 2). Eudora 4-10 (Katzenmeier 2, Verbanic, Ballock). Turnovers: Truman 8, Eudora 10.