By LIONEL TIPTON
ROSALIA, Kansas – If there were any doubters about the strength of Eureka’s third-ranked Tornadoes, those doubts were dispelled easily during the second quarter of Friday night’s game at Flinthills.
Eureka outscored the Mustangs 24-8 in the period for a 38-13 halftime lead and rolled the rest of the way for a 58-21 nonconference triumph.
The Tornadoes (6-0) had more players score in the game (9) than Flinthills suited up (7). Mustangs senior Tagen Carney is recovering from an appendectomy on Thursday, and freshman Adrienne Rodriguez missed the game because of illness.
“Depth was not to our advantage,” Mustangs coach Daniel Scribner said afterward.
Junior Brenna Rucker powered Eureka’s second-period outburst with eight points and finished with a game-high 19, including two of Eureka’s eight three-pointers. Senior Laynie Winfrey hit three three-pointers and was the only other Tornado in double figures with 11.
“I know Eureka bounces back and forth between 3A and 2A, but it wouldn’t matter what classification (they are) – they’re a good team,” Scribner said.
Rucker’s output shouldn’t be a surprise. Her older brother Blake played for Eureka, then finished his high school career at Andover High and was part of the Trojans’ 2023 Class 5A state champions. He is now at Barton Community College, where he is still recovering from a knee injury suffered during his senior season last year.
The Mustangs (3-2), coming off their second straight Fairfield tournament championship, managed an early 3-0 lead, but that lasted all of 3:56. A Winfrey layup gave Eureka a 4-3 lead, and the Tornadoes never trailed after that.
“We got fatigued (in the second quarter) and made some really poor decisions with the ball,” Scribner said. “That led to turnovers, and turnovers always lead to opponents’ points.”
Senior Paige Corter led Flinthills with seven points after averaging more than 21 points in the three Fairfield tournament games against Cunningham, Stafford and Pretty Prairie. Junior guard Alex Scribner had four but had to work extremely hard just for those two buckets, including one where she contorted herself in the lane and tossed in a banked layup..
Outmanned and outgunned, the Mustangs put up as game of a battle as they were able.
“We aren’t tall, and we aren’t long,” Daniel Scribner said, “but we’ve got some scrappy, and we don’t control big and long, so we don’t stress too much about that.
“They shot it well. We came out and chose to zone them, and we were able to kind of take away the inside, but did give them some (outside) looks, and to their credit, they knocked them down.”
Eureka’s ranking is well-deserved, Scribner said.
“They’re a real nice team,” he said. “They’ve got some girls on the top end that really can score. They’re athletic, and they’ve got really great depth.”
With Corter in the post, Flinthills can be formidable, but a Class 1A-Division I team – even a good one – won’t fare well against one of 2A’s top squads.
After Christmas break, Flinthills will face two more 2A schools, Wichita Classical (4-1) at home and at Bluestem (4-2) in the first week of January before beginning South Central Border League play at Oxford on Jan. 14.
The SCBL might not have a team as strong as Eureka, but there will be some formidable challenges in Flinthills’ conference games, Scribner said.
“The 2-3 years, South Haven has been very good,” he said. “They’ve made the state tournament pretty consistently at the 1A-Division II level.”
Scribner said the Mustangs can contend for the SCBL title.
“In my opinion, we should be competing to win it,” he said. “We were second place in the regular season and second place in the (league) tournament last year. We essentially have everybody back.”
Once Carney recovers from her operation, that should strengthen Flinthills even more, Scribner said.
“She gives us another ballhandler, another shooter,” he said. “So, we’re hoping she can get healthy over break, get her back as soon as we safely can.
“We expect to be pretty good in league play. It’s a great group of girls. This set of girls, they win a lot of ballgames, but we took one on the chin (Friday night), but that won’t keep us from going right back at them.”
Eureka 58, Flinthills girls 21
Eureka 14 24 13 7 – 58
Flinthills 5 8 6 2 – 21
EUREKA – Rucker 8(2) 1-2 19, Coulter 3(1) 0-0 7, Mason 2 0-0 4, Winfrey 4(3) 0-0 11, Mongeau 2(1) 0-0 5, Lindamood 1(1) 0-0 3, Ptacek 2 1-2 5, Westerman 1 0-0 2, Perrier 1 0-0 2. Totals 24(8) 2-4 58.
FLINTHILLS – Corter 3 1-2 7, A. Scribner 2 0-0 4, E. Scribner 2 0-0 4, Bohnen 2 0-0 4, Cabugo 1 0-0 2. Totals 10 1-2 21.
