With the “I believe that we will win” chant coming from the student section, head coach Kyle Deterding and senior Cole Parker smiled at each other on the sideline knowing the team is heading back to state.
“It feels amazing, man,” Parker said. “It’s all we’ve thought about for the past like week heading up into sub-state, and it’s really special for us.”
The Cardinals defeated Wamego 46-29 Friday night to extend their season to the state tournament in Salina next week.
The team will be making back-to-back appearances at state after qualifying for the tournament last year. The Cardinals were eliminated by Topeka-Hayden in the first round last season.
Parker said he thinks the experience gained from last season’s trip will help the team do better this time around.
“I mean, we’ve been there before. We know we’ve been there before,” he said. “We can compete with, I mean, just about anybody in 4A. We’re going to bring it. We’re going to be confident in ourselves and give it all we got.”
With a trip to state on the line, Parker started the game off firing as he hit three 3-point shots in the first quarter and scored 14 of the team’s 19 first-quarter points.
“Just being confident in myself, my teammates finding me, it was a good mixture of things,” Parker said on what led to his strong start. “It helped us get out to a fast start and get some energy going for us and the crowd.”
Parker led the team in scoring as he finished the game with 18 points.
Parker and the Cardinals hit a wall in the second quarter, however. The team started to get into foul trouble, which allowed Wamego to hang around. The Cardinals took just a seven-point lead into halftime.
But the Cardinals hit their stride once again in the third quarter, mainly on the defensive side of the ball. Wamego only scored two points in the quarter.
“They got a few offensive rebounds in the first half, and we kind of cleaned that up a little bit and kind of limited them to one,” Deterding said.
The defense and rebounding then turned to offense as the Cardinals launched a 10-0 run about mid-way through the third quarter.
Junior Logan Sullivan led the charge by scoring four points during the team’s surge. Sullivan scored 14 points on the night.
The run helped the team increase the lead to 17 heading into the fourth quarter, where the Cardinals were happy holding on to the ball and draining the clock as much as they could.
Senior Conor Dunback came away with two critical offensive rebounds to gain extra possessions for the Cardinals and milk the clock even further.
Dunback said the opportunity to go to state in his senior season is special.
“It just hits hard that it’s your last high school season, last time playing with the guys,” he said. “We want to end it on a good note, I guess.”
The last time the Cardinals won a state championship was in 2014. Deterding was the head coach of that team and he said he sees some similarities between the teams.
“That team really didn’t have a big either. We were a little bit taller, but we were pretty much a bunch of guards like we are now,” Deterding said. “And that team really worked hard on the defensive end, and this team really guards people pretty well, too.”
Dunback said the team just needs to practice hard and stay focused on the game in front of them in order to do well at state.
The Cardinals first round matchup is to be determined. The game will take place Wednesday at the Tony’s Pizza Event Center in Salina.
Reach reporter Jack Denebeim at [email protected].
If you appreciate our sports coverage, please donate. Our newspaper depends on your donations to provide coverage of Eudora and continue providing local news.
To donate to support our community journalism, please go to this link: tinyurl.com/y4u7stxj
