By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
With the madness of March looming, it was only appropriate that No. 10-ranked (Class4A) Hayden and No. 3 (4A) Eudora got to square off in a state-tournament rematch to end the 2022-2023 regular season on Thursday night.
Unfortunately for the Wildcats, Eudora avenged its state-tournament loss from last year with a 54-50 over Hayden on the Wildcats' Senior Night.
Hayden coach Dwayne Paul and his Wildcats will be looking for another strong stretch run to make it back to the Class 4A state tournament. [File photo/TSN]
While Eudora held a lead from the early part of the first quarter, Hayden cut the Cardinals' lead to a point on a few different occasions but couldn’t get over that hump, especially in the fourth quarter.
On paper, last year’s state tournament matchup, where bottom seed Hayden overpowered No. 1 seed Eudora, might have looked like an upset, but not many teams in 4A faced the type of competition the Wildcats faced last season and this year.
Thursday’s matchup felt more dramatic down the stretch than last year’s state tournament contest, as the Wildcats wanted to win the contest more due to seeding and getting above the .500 line.
It was a playoff-type atmosphere at Hayden High School, and the loss stung the Wildcats more than a typical regular-season loss.
“I thought we battled, but this is playoff basketball,” Hayden coach Dwayne Paul said. “Everyone is good. There are no more scrub teams; there are no more gimmees. Every possession matters. When you go away from possessions with bad shot selection, guys aren’t playing to their strengths, guys are not playing on both ends of the floor… you can’t get those back. So when guys say, ‘My bad, coach, I’ll get them back,’ it is impossible. You can’t get it back; you can’t.”
Like last year, Eudora’s lineup appeared to have a similar starting five. The only difference for the Cardinals is playing without last year’s standout Jaden Hamm who is now committed to the University of Kansas for football.
“Of course, they don’t have Jaden Hamm, but that makes them a little more dangerous,” Paul said. “Because (Logan Sullivan) and (Cole Parker) now have a little more free rein. They have so much more movement off the ball than what they had last year. So that makes them harder to guard. But they didn’t do anything that we weren’t expecting.
“We knew it was going to be dribble drives, but we made them work for their points. But the difference was that you have one player (Parker) who was nine of 10 from the (free throw) line with 16 points. So we made him work from the field. All those points from the field for him came in the first quarter. We had the same opportunities, but we didn’t make our free throws when we needed.”
In the first four minutes of play, Eudora went on an 11-3 run, going five of five from the field. Joe Otting had all three points for Hayden during that span.
Hayden closed out the quarter gaining traction. The Wildcats finished the opening quarter only trailing 15-8.
“We let their shooters get confidence early,” Paul said. “We didn’t make it tough on them. (Sullivan) and (Parker) came in there and weren’t supposed to catch it. We didn’t have long enough guards to contest them if they caught it. If they got to their spot, they would make the shot. It didn’t matter how good of defense we were going to play. We had to fight a battle from behind early.”
The roles were reversed offensively in the second quarter and Hayden was the better team going into halftime.
Hayden got good production from its bench in the second period, where Hayden outscored Eudora, 14-8. Freshman Ayden McGibboney (five points), junior Cooper Colbach (three) and junior Carter Charvat (two) combined for 10 points off the bench.
Eudora’s foul trouble benefitted the Wildcats in the quarter. Otting would go two of two from the free throw line, while senior Jake Muller went two of three from the charity stripe.
After staring at a significant deficit for most of the first half, Hayden condensed its lead to a single point going into halftime, trailing by a 23-22 margin.
Within the first 1:28 of the third quarter, Hayden had already picked up four fouls. The Wildcats played clean the remainder of the quarter, only securing one more foul.
No team jumped out to a run that played a factor after the halftime break.
However, thanks to a buzzer-beating fadeaway 3-point shot from Otting, Hayden decreased its deficit to 36-31 heading to the final quarter.
With Hayden down by five, McGibboney lifted the team’s spirits with two momentous changing plays.
McGibboney scored four consecutive points for Hayden, including one bucket off a Jacob Padilla steal, leading to a fast-break bucket for the freshman. Hayden was down 40-39 with 4:49 remaining in the game.
Eudora would stretch its lead to seven points with under a minute to go until senior Muller hit a 3-pointer with pressure in his face. Hayden would stare at a 48-44 deficit with 53.1 seconds remaining.
Hayden had to hope for misfires from Eudora at the charity stripe, but the Cardinals were automatic.
Despite clutch 3-point shots from Colbach and Padilla to bring the game within two points, Eudora would take advantage of the non-existant shot clock forcing Hayden to foul, which was successful for the Cardinals.
Hayden has to wait until Friday night to learn who their next opponent will be in the opening round of the 4A sub-state. Will they be able to come up with another run in this year’s post-season?
“We have to stay together more than ever now because now, more than likely, we will be a 10 seed,” Paul said. “I don’t know if I see Ottawa losing to Spring Hill. If we get the 10, we will play the seven 7. We will play someone like Wamego, Ottawa or somebody like that. After that, it’s such a logjam at the top. (Bishop) Miege, Chanute, Bonner Springs and Baldwin have tough games tomorrow, so we will have to see.
“We have to be more together, more connected and have more attention to detail than ever. We have to go to two games on the road in somebody else’s house with hostile crowds to get a win and keep advancing. But this team has done it before. We have to be tougher and more together than other teams.”
EUDORA BOYS 54, HAYDEN 50
Eudora 15 8 13 18 – 54
Hayden 8 14 9 19 – 50
Eudora – Hammerschmidt 1-4 2-3 4, Parker 3-4 9-10 16, Dunback 4-6 0-0 8, Barron 3-4 1-2 7, Sullivan 4-8 5-5 13, Votaw 3-3 0-0 6, Siemon 0-1 0-0 0. Totals – 18-30 17-20 54.
Hayden – Muller 4-10 2-4 12, Foster 0-2 0-0 0, Gonzalez 0-1 0-0 0, Ham 0-1 0-0 0, Otting 4-5 5-10 14, Padilla 1-2 0-0 3, Cameron 0-0 0-3 0, Colboch 3-7 0-0 8, McGibboney 4-7 2-2 11, Deister 0-1 0-0 0, Charvat 1-1 0-0 2. Totals – 17-37 9-19 50.
3-point goals – Eudora 1 (Parker), Hayden 7 (Muller 2, Colbach 2, Otting, McGibboney, Padilla). Total fouls – Eudora 19, Hayden 21. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls – none.
