Eureka Girls Finish 2-2 at Whittell Tournament

The Lady Vandals went to the Whittell tournament last weekend with only seven players.

Coach Travis Gallagher said, “Our first game was with the Incline Highlanders. We knew it was going to be tough, and it was.”

Eureka had a 19-15 halftime lead, but Morgan Thomas had gone out with a knee injury in the first five minutes.”

Without Thomas to run the offense in the second half, the adjustments made by the Highlanders saw them outscore Eureka 19-6 and take the win 34-25. “Our girls just weren’t there,” Gallagher said. “Incline also likes to play the push-and-shove type of game more than we do. We couldn’t handle their pressure that second half.”

However, Gracie Garrett stepped up to lead the team with 13 points.

Thomas did not play any of the other games at Whittell and Gallagher did not know what the extent of the injury might be.

The girls second game was a 38-28 win over Pershing County. Again, Gracie Garrett led the way with 16 points. “We moved the ball and had quite a few rebounds that game, and kept them from getting many rebounds,” Gallagher said.

The second Friday game at Whittell was with Mineral County, and resulted in a 53-39 win for the Lady Vandals.

“That was a real rough game, too, with both teams being very tired,” Gallagher said. “They fouled three girls out, we fouled one out and for the last two minutes we were playing 4-on-4.” Both teams had 16 fouls and neither did well at the free throw line. Eureka was 14-for-29, Mineral County was 6-of-14.

Ilyhia Greely was high point for Eureka with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Garrett added 15 points.

The final game at Whittell was with Truckee. “And it wasn’t even close.” Gallagher noted.

Truckee, who won all their games at the tourney, overplayed the Vandals 25-7 in the first half and 25-16 in the second half for a 50-23 win. Greely was high for the Lady Vandals with eight points. Garrett had six.

“Our girls just couldn’t handle the Wolverines defense,” Gallagher said. “They used a lot of traps and pressure on the ball and we just did not handle the ball well, especially in that first half. We just didn’t get very many shot attempts.”

This week, Dec. 14-15, Eureka will in the girl’s version of the tournament at Round Mountain and play Tonopah, Round Mountain and Beatty.

After that, they will be off until after New Year’s and pick up again Jan. 4 hosting Tonopah.