In fact, the crowds at recent Tonganoxie sporting events have been outstanding.

Friday night, the hometown fans witnessed wins by both the boys and girls. The crowd steadily increased during the girls game those of you who arrived late missed an outstanding performance by Jill Stauch and reached a rocking crescendo late in the boys game as the boys held off DeSoto.

Despite a long day of wrestling, the fans were there at the end of the day for the four Tonganoxie wrestlers who advanced to the finals Saturday.

And Monday night, the crowd certainly didn’t hurt with its cheering as Tonganoxie advanced to the semifinals with a win against Hogan.

Even the visiting crowd was up for the games. The gym was noisy for the tense overtime game between Eudora and Lansing.

Tonganoxie High School has done a good job of creating an exciting gameday atmosphere for events.

When he’s not coaching the girls team, John Lee sounds like he’s vying for a job as an NBA announcer.

Whether it’s pregame basketball introductions, or prefinals wrestling introductions, the crowd hears who’s going to be competing and begins to get riled up.

For those of you who haven’t experienced it, there are three more nights of basketball this week.

Eudora beats Lansing
Eudora will play Tonganoxie Friday after a fourth quarter comeback Monday.

The Cardinals trailed an inspired Lansing team for much of the game before closing the gap and forcing overtime.

“I’m just glad we won,” said Chad Eshbaugh, Eudora coach.

Eudora led 16-14 at the end of the first quarter. The game was tied at 31 at halftime. Lansing led 47-42 after the third quarter.

Cyrus Hall scored 12 and Brent Carnagie scored 15 for the Cardinals, but both players fouled out during regulation. Lansing scored only two points in the final three minutes of regulation and only six points in the overtime.

Cheerleaders’ raffle
The Tonganoxie High School cheerleaders are raffling chances to win a basketball autographed by the University of Kansas basketball team and two tickets to the KU vs. Baylor basketball game Feb. 26.

Tickets are available from the cheerleaders or at the concession stand during Tonganoxie basketball games.

The drawing will be Jan. 22, and ticketholders need not be present to win.

Seventh-grade hoops
The seventh-grade basketball team opened with a pair of losses at Piper.

T2, one of two B teams, lost 31-13 to Piper. The A team lost 34-23.

The Warriors trailed early in the A game and were down 21-12 at halftime.

Brice Percy scored eight, Zach Ditty scored six, Chris Colon scored four, Travis Schultz scored three, and Kirk Rodell had two.

“Piper had more height and experience than we did,” said Jim Cackler, seventh-grade boys coach. “We’ll be OK if we keep trying to improve. We hustled and never gave up.”

The T2 team plays Clark at 4 p.m. today. The T1 team plays at 4 p.m. Thursday, and the A team plays after that.