Vandals improve to 9-2

The Eureka County boys basketball team entered the Dec. 18 tournament in Round Mountain 6-2. After a thorough performance in all three games of the two-day tourney, they will enter the regular season with a positive 9-2 record.

The Vandals suited up in their first game of the tournament against the Tonopah Muckers. Eureka has had multiple meetings already this season with Tonopah and the outcome of the latter was no different. Eureka was fueled by great distribution in the scoring column by multiple Vandals. Senior Trevor Merritt led in scoring with only 10 points but many others were close behind with the whole roster scoring at least one bucket. Eureka cruised to an easy 56-19 win over the Muckers.

Their second game of the tournament was against host Round Mountain. This game served as their closest contest of the tournament, but in reality wasn’t really that close in final score. Four Vandals scored in double figures with Nick Gordon, Nick Hornberger, Jaiden Hicks, and Merritt scoring 13, 12, 11, and 11 points respectively. The potent scoring from the starters led to a 55-41 victory over the host Knights.

On Dec. 19, Eureka played their last game before their league schedule will start as they squared off against the Beatty Hornets. Merritt poured in 20 points with Gordon adding 11 and Hornberger adding 10 to lift Eureka to a 70-54 victory over Beatty.

The Vandals will have an extended layoff before they start their league play on Jan. 8 against Carlin at home for their first home game of the season.