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| Effort sets tone in playoff game for Vikings |
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| Sports | |||
| Written by David Wolman | |||
| Friday, 05 March 2010 09:00 | |||
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Several minutes following Central Heights’ 78-35 victory over Eureka on Monday on Buddy Welch court, Viking coach Rusty Cannady walked into the office of assistant coach/athletic director Doug North to talk about his team’s performance. Cannady couldn’t help but be tickled about their effort. “I told him I haven’t seen us play with that much energy in a while,” Cannady said. “Hopefully, the kids the past couple of weeks were just eager to finally get to substate week.” Prior to the season, one goal Cannady set for his squad was to not lose any of their final three games, a reference to the substate tournament, where three wins by one team equates to a berth in the Class 3A state tournament in Hutchinson. One down, two to go. An area of emphasis for Central Heights (17-4), the top seed in the substate tournament, was to attack Eureka’s defense. And attack the Vikings did. Sam Leach had the hot hand early. He not only attacked the middle of Eureka’s defense for a few shots, but also sank two 3s. That set off a chain reaction. Skye Mills also hit a perimeter shot. Then the Viking posts got involved as Russell Hampton, Cody Sluder and Adam Seyler took control down in the paint. Central Heights couldn’t have asked for a better start to the game offensively, as they torched Eureka for 31 first-quarter points, on their way to building a 54-19 halftime advantage. In the first quarter alone, the Vikings had seven players find their way into the scoring column. “It was an explosion of offense,” Cannady said. Sluder paced Central Heights with 18 points. Leach had 17, Seyler 10, Mills and Ethan Van Zant nine each, Hampton eight, Beau Skeet three, Wade Davis two and Cody Hoskins two. It wasn’t just the offense that got it done for the Vikings. Their full-court press defense forced Eureka into committing 17 turnovers. Several of those turnovers led to easy baskets for the Vikings. “We controlled the game from the get-go,” Cannady said. Central Heights advanced to Thursday’s semifinal, when they played Council Grove in Eureka, Kan. Results were unavailable at press time. The winner advances to Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. championship, also in Eureka.
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