Eudora girls basketball celebrates with the student section after the Cardinal's sub-state championship. Eudora defeated Paola 33-28 on Friday, March 6.

What began as a celebration of the Eudora girls basketball team’s sub-state victory on Friday quickly turned into a photoshoot all around the packed Eudora gym.

It started with just the team, made its way to the raucous student section, and later involved nearly all of the spectators.

“It was awesome,” Eudora sophomore guard Harper Schreiner said. “Girls basketball really hasn’t been big (in Eudora) except for these last two years, and our community has really come together and it’s been awesome. The energy has been amazing.”

Eudora has a 20-2 record after its 33-28 win over Paola in the Class 4A sub-state championship on Friday, and the Cardinals are the No. 2 seed in the Class 4A state tournament. Play begins Wednesday in Salina, where Eudora will face No. 7 seed Clay Center at 3 p.m.

Naturally, that record brings with it momentum, something the Cardinals hope to have plenty of heading into the state tournament. They also look to build off last year, when Eudora fell in the first round to No. 1 seed Piper, 52-35.

“This year’s team — we know what it’s like to be there and we know what it’s like to lose and have your season end early,” Schreiner said. “And we’re ready to not have that feeling again.”

What helps this team is that past experience. Whether it’s been in volleyball, track and field or basketball, these athletes know what it takes to play and win at the state level.

“I think sky’s the limit at this point,” Eudora interim head coach Brandon Parker said. “I’ve got a group of winners. They win in everything that they do. They’ll love the competition and the atmosphere of state.”

Games like Friday’s sub-state championship help set up those kinds of expectations. While Friday’s win was less than perfect, Parker said that’s to be expected at this stage of the season. Parker said he’s talked with his team in-depth about how little things like rebounding and defensive close-outs make championship teams.

“Championship teams usually don’t have a bunch of 25-point wins in crunch time,” Parker said. “So our girls are ready for that and they’ve shown that all year. We’ve had some games where we win big and some slow games where, there it is, it’s a slugfest. We’re just going to trade body blows and see what happens here.”

It helps having a player like Schreiner on the floor in “a slugfest.” Parker called the sophomore guard “a gamer” and said her impact is “big every night.”

That was true Friday, when Schreiner led the team with 13 points. And even when she wasn’t scoring, she was working on the defensive end, grabbing a pair of steals to shift momentum in the first half.

“Yeah, I’m going to do what we need to do to win,” Schreiner said. “And I’m going to do it how we need to do it. It’s not the same every night.”

It may not be the same every night, but Schreiner and Parker agree — the road just continues to get tougher the deeper the Cardinals go into postseason play.

“I mean, there’s not going to be an easy win there, so this really helped us prepare for that,” Schreiner said.

And both Schreiner and Parker also agree that this team is confident that it can continue its winning ways at the state tournament. That comes from winning these grind-it-out games, as well as from the immense community support.

Parker said he’s talked with the team a lot recently about the support it’s gained over the course of this year. Winning helps that, but it’s also the style of play from the Cardinals. Parker said the team gets “a lot of compliments in this community,” both inside the gym and in and around Eudora.

And that fan support has helped push the Cardinals to the Class 4A state tournament, and made this season “just a lot of fun.”

“There’s a lot of people that appreciate just how hard that they play,” Parker said. “And (the team cares) about this school and they care about this community so much. So the crowds (Friday), the student section, the community — it’s what high school sports should be about. The town comes out to support their kids, and that’s what happened.”