EL DORADO, Kan.—
Campus point guard Jordan Sparks swatted the ball away from El Dorado’s Travis House, and the momentum carried both players into a collision.All House knew was that the right side of his hip hurt, and Sparks was lying on the court.
“It didn’t look good,” said House, who thinks Sparks’ head suffered a blow. “I was just hoping he was alright.”
El Dorado started its own Bluestem Classic by beating Campus, 73-55, in a game that saw a 20-minute delay in the second quarter while Sparks was taken by ambulance to Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital. An hour after the game, his status was unknown.
During the delay, both teams went back to their locker rooms. Sparks said the Wildcats basically got two halftime speeches from coach Gary Melcher.
The probably needed the first one: The 8-1 Wildcats were losing to the 1-9 Colts. Before the collision, and after a 3-point shot by Marcus Saucedo, Campus held a 23-21 lead over El Dorado. Shots were falling for the Colts, who are never shy about shooting.
When the teams came back, however, the Wildcats scored 20 points in less than six minutes to end the first half.
“I think sometimes that’s false security,” Melcher said. “You’re not playing the way you want to, but the ball’s going in the basket. … You get comfortable, but they’re not going to go in like that the whole night.”
Still, El Dorado extended a 24-3 lead into the third quarter, taking a 45-24 lead.
“We’re a snowball team,” Campus coach Russell Herman said. “If things go good, we do really well and everybody gets excited. When things go bad, we don’t do anything to get the momentum back. They went on a run, we let it happen, and we didn’t do anything to stop it.
“It’s frustrating, it’s happened multiple times, and that’s one of the reasons we only have one win on the season. With our offense, we should be able to play with anybody. We shoot the ball well most nights. But it won’t matter until we start playing defense.”
The Colts were able to get within eight, 60-52, with 3:38 remaining. That was after another 3-pointer by Saucedo. He made seven of them, and led both teams with 25 points.
El Dorado responded with a 13-3 run to end the game. House ended the game with 22 points.
“I rushed a little bit on offense, trying to increase the tempo, but I shot the ball pretty well,” House said. “It was a good night for us.”
Jared Haury scored 15 points and Aaron Riffel added 13 for the Wildcats. Gage Cooper had 14 for Campus.
Kapaun Mount Carmel 77, Circle 32 - Kapaun exploded for 34 points in the third quarter. The Crusaders (7-2) were led by Thomas O’Connor (18 points), Braden Hullings (16), Toby Baxter (12) and Jeremy Lickteig (10).
Collegiate 43, Great Bend 34 - Collegiate built a 10-point lead at halftime and got 12 points from Taj Holt. The Spartans made 16 of 19 free throws. Ethan Henderson scored 14 points to lead Great Bend.
Gardner-Edgerton 58, Wichita Trinity 47 - Kyle Huppe poured in 24 points for Gardner-Edgerton, including four 3-pointers. The Trailblazers also got 11 points from Dilon Dodson. Trinity was led by Ryan Miller’s 18 points.
