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Holding court at Tonganoxie Invitational

By Shawn Linenberger - | Jan 26, 2016

The Eudora boys basketball team breezed through the Tonganoxie Invitational last week, winning its first two games by 20 and 40 points, respectively, before taking the championship by 29.

Eudora defeated Tonganoxie, 57-37, in its first game and then throttled Holton, 68-28, on Friday.

The Cardinals then defeated Wamego, 57-28, in the championship game Saturday.

Tonganoxie High actually provided the most excitement as far as closely contested games.

Though the Chieftains lost by 30 to Eudora, they also won in overtime against Holton, 49-45, and lost, 45-38, to De Soto, in a game that was close throughout.

De Soto finished in third in the six-team tournament with the Saturday victory against THS, while Holton placed fifth with a 41-28 victory against Jeff West.

Silver Lake girls champ

Saturday’s girls championship game was much closer than the boys game. Silver Lake outlasted De Soto, 48-42, for the title. De Soto cut the SLHS lead to 2 with a buzzer beater just before halftime, as it was a close game throughout.

Bonner Springs took third with a 43-37 win against Jeff West.

And in the fifth-place game, Wamego rolled Eudora, 54-25.

In 11 tournament games, four games were decided by eight points or less and three by 19 or more.

Though this year’s installment of the Tonganoxie Invitational, the 57th annual, had seven teams in the girls’ field and six on the boys’ side, next year’s edition is expected to have the full eight teams for both brackets.


All-tourney team

Tonganoxie had two players on the all-tournament team. Taylor Lee was named to the girls team, while Chandler Caldwell was named to the boys team.

Also on the girls team were Caitlyn Claussen and Tessa Seeberger, Wamego; Alexis Gifford and Madison Wegner, Silver Lake; Mariah Grizzle, Julia Johnson and Kristen Saucerman, De Soto; Miyah Hightower, Bonner Springs, and Mariah Murdie, Jeff West. Silver Lake’s Taylor White was named most inspirational player and Silver Lake’s Rachel Heiman was most valuable player.

Joining Caldwell on the boys team were Isaac Albert and Jacob Jennings, De Soto; Dillon Blain, Sean Nordberg, Anthony Downing and Bryce Patrick, Wamego; Austin Downing and Brian Tolefree, Eudora; and Bryson Patch, Holton. Eudora’s Grant Elston was most inspirational player and Eudora’s Jomain Rouser was named MVP.