By LIONEL TIPTON

ROSALIA, Kansas – Temperatures outside were in the 20s, but inside not much was hotter than the second half Flinthills junior guard Jake Hunter put up Friday night against Eureka.
Hunter scored 17 of his game-high 20 points after halftime, and the Mustangs needed every one of them to hold off a persistent Tornadoes team, 47-45, in a triumph not assured until the final buzzer.
“I wasn’t shooting too well to start off the game,” Hunter said. “But that’s OK. I always get hot shooting good at the end. So was our team – a second-half team.
“Honestly, a lot of my second halves are better than my first halves. I don’t know (why) – I think that’s a ‘mentality thing.’ That’ll for sure get better (as we go) through the season.”
Even with a six-point lead with less than a minute to go, Flinthills had to scramble like crazy.
The Mustangs (4-2) had to hit six of eight free throws in the final 1:37 and had to withstand three Eureka shots to tie or win the game in the last 12.4 seconds.
Normally, a six-point lead can be a comforting thing, but not for the Mustangs.
The Tornadoes (3-3) employed a “Hack-A-Shaq” strategy that put Flinthills in the bonus with 1:37 left. Even with hitting 75 percent of their foul shots down the stretch, costly mistakes threatened the Mustangs.
“I think that’s disrespectful,” Jake Hunter said of the fouling strategy. “When we were shooting free throws, they had a couple of kids talking (trash). At the end of the game, they went over to half-court and were taunting us. I don’t know why, but …”
Eureka’s T.J. Mills drove in for a layup to make it 46-42 with 29.8 seconds left. Hunter hit one of two free throws, then Eureka’s Tyson Coon hit a three-pointer that slashed the Flinthills lead to just 47-45 with 12.4 seconds to play.
“They had a great set play out of a timeout,” Mustangs coach Michael Hunter said. “We kind of tried to be sneaky and change our defense up a little bit there, but they caught us in a double screen up top, and that kid (Coon) hit a great shot from the top.
“Our kid was there, but that Coon kid hit a great shot to cut (the Flinthills lead) to two (points).”
After a Tornadoes timeout, Flinthills failed to inbound the ball in five seconds, giving Eureka the ball under its own basket.
“We talked about that beforehand,” Michael Hunter said. “We wanted to call a timeout if we couldn’t get it in, but (the officials) didn’t hear us. But that’s OK. It was pretty loud in here.
“But we gave (Eureka) a shot at the end. That was a wild ending, for sure.”
Hunter watched all three attempts with his heart in his throat, he said.
“Every single shot,” he said. “Every single shot. Those two threes, I thought one of them was in for sure, and I thought, ‘Oh boy, here we’ve got to try something special.’ But our kids kind of tipped it out, and you could see the hustle at the end of the game, dive on the floor for it.
“Our kids hustle – they hustle a lot.”
But the Tornadoes missed three shots as the final buzzer sounded, and Flinthills could breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Flinthills had won one of three games in the Fairfield tournament before Tuesday’s victory over Altoona-Midway, but found the going tough early on. Points were hard to get, but the Mustangs managed to lead 13-10 after one quarter.
Eureka outscored them 7-5 in the second quarter and only trailed by one at the break, 18-17.
Then Hunter, who averaged 23.5 points in the tournament games, went to work.
He had 10 points in the third quarter, but Flinthills found itself trailing at the end of the period, 34-31.
Eureka’s strategy to foul on each Mustangs offensive possession sent Flinthills to the line 11 times in the fourth quarter, including three for Hunter, who was fouled attempting a three-pointer.
Flinthills made seven of the attempts and outscored the Tornadoes 16-11 in the final period to pull out the victory.
A relieved coach Hunter – Jake’s father and the school’s principal – was thankful his team could emerge victorious.
“We knew they were a pretty athletic team and had some length to them,” he said. “Tyson Coon (6-foot-3) is a pretty good ballplayer. He plays a lot of summer ball with a pretty competitive summer team, and so we knew he was pretty good.
“We knew they’d been a good team. They had won three straight (to start the season and) two really tough teams down the stretch. They played Olpe and lost and Holcomb – and those two teams are undefeated. We knew that they were going to be extremely competitive, fairly long and fairly athletic.”
Sophomore guard Tripp Carney hit two three-pointers and was the only other Mustang in double figures with 10 points.
“Tripp’s a competitor,” Hunter said. “He’s extremely a football player. Tripp will give us three (points) some nights; he’ll give us double digits some nights, but I can always count on him to play hard.
“He plays hard every night.”
A certain kind of cohesion helped Flinthills in the game, Hunter said.
“I think last game (Tuesday at Altoona-Midway) helped us,” he said. “We had four kids in double figures last game. It was good to see that … other kids scoring. Four … in double figures, and one of them wasn’t Tripp. Tripp’s even got that potential to score in double figures, so it was good to see him play well (Friday night). It was good to see our supporting cast as well.”
The supporting cast had to ride to the rescue because of Eureka’s tall players in the middle, which created some odd defensive assignments, Hunter said.
“They do (have some tall players), and we had Tripp Carney, who’s about 5-9, 5-10 … had him playing down low, but he’s a strong kid, gives us everything he has, and at the end you could see him diving on the floor.”
Eureka’s strategy to put Flinthills in the bonus was a bit strange.
“And we didn’t make as many as we should have,” Hunter said. “I think we were one-out-of-two most of the time. We hit one, not two – we could have ended the game if we had made all of our free throws.
“But we made just enough to win.”
After Christmas, the Mustangs will head into 2025 with two more games against Class 2A teams – at home to Wichita Classical and at Bluestem. South Central Border League play begins Jan. 14 at Oxford.
“The tough thing is, we have two games before kids come back to school,” Michael Hunter said. “So we’ll have Friday-Monday games before we have league play. We don’t have school until Tuesday (Jan. 7).”
Hunter said he’s pretty satisfied with the season so far.
“We have no seniors,” he said. “We don’t have one senior on the whole team. We’ve got some young guys playing a lot of minutes they haven’t played before. We’ve got some starters who haven’t played a lot before.
“But I’ll tell you one thing: This is one of the best teams I’ve ever coached … as far as heart and effort. These kids come to practice every day ready to go; they enjoy playing together – there’s no egos out there. And so, I can only see the team getting better as the year goes on.”
Jake Hunter said the season has felt good so far.
“There’s been some ups and downs with shooting and stuff, but overall we’ve really stepped up,” he said. “Some of the players have really stepped up.”
As for SCBL play, Michael Hunter said he looks for it to be competitive across the board.
“It’s tough,” he said. “I’ve been looking at the scores lately, and you’ve got Cedar Vale-Dexter who is 4-1; you’ve got Oxford, who is going to be pretty good at 4-1; and everybody else is 4-2, 3-2. It could be a pretty competitive league this year.
“Oxford has got a senior-led team. They’re a pretty good ballclub. They were at 2A last year but dropped down to 1A this year. Cedar Vale has always got a good team – they’ve got three foreign-exchange students who are pretty good ballplayers. That changes their dynamics.
“So, it’ll be a fun season.”
Jake echoed his father’s assessment.
“Some of our league teams are looking pretty good this season,” he said. “We are, too, though. We’re going to come out, play with intensity, play with energy, come like always and get the ‘W.’ ”
And all of his teammates return with him next season.
“It’s amazing,” Jake said. “It’s amazing to see our team being all juniors, sophomores, freshmen and no seniors … and next year, it’s going to be even better.”

Flinthills boys 47, Eureka 45
Eureka 10 7 17 11 – 45
Flinthills 13 5 13 16 – 47
EUREKA – Biering 1 0-0 2, Mead 4(3) 0-0 11, Hare 1 0-0 2, Mills 5 3-4 13, Coon 4(2) 1-2 11, Mitchell 3 0-0 6.Totals 18(5) 4-6 45.
FLINTHILLS – Hunter 6(3) 5-9 20, Carney 4(2) 0-0 10, Farris 2(1) 2-2 7, Randall 2 0-0 4, Davis 1(1) 0-0 3, Scribner 1 1-2 3. Totals 16(7) 8-13 47.