EUGENE, Mo. - Everyone knows the Eugene Eagles lost a lot to graduation from last year's team that advanced to the Class 3 quarterfinals. But the cupboard is far from bare.
The Eagles showed that off Tuesday night when they opened their own basketball tournament with a 73-39 pounding of the St. Elizabeth Hornets.
Eugene started the season last week by handling Clearwater 87-66 in the Current River Challenge hosted by Van Buren High School. So in two games so far this season, they've won by an average of 27.5 points per game while getting adjusted to losing three starters and their sixth man from last year.
"So far from quarter to quarter, we're passing better, we're moving better, we're cutting better, we're starting to understand where people are at," Eugene coach Craig Engelbrecht said. "Every game, I think we see a little glimpse of that.
"We have experienced players coming back, but it's just getting those experienced pieces to mesh (with the newcomers)."
Eugene jumped out to a 20-5 lead after one quarter Tuesday and held a 17-13 scoring edge in the second to take a 37-18 advantage into the locker room.
In the half, St. Elizabeth made just 6-of-28 shots.
"I told our guys at halftime, "Don't even look at what our score is, because I know they only have 18. I don't care who you're playing, that's good defense,'" Engelbrecht said. "That's what we were proud of."
The third quarter belonged to the Eagles, Tyler Kempker in particular. The senior drilled all four of his 3-point attempts while scoring 15 points in the quarter, outscoring St. Elizabeth by himself. The Eagles had a 31-14 scoring edge to take a 68-32 lead into the final period.
"We had a really good third quarter," Engelbrecht said. "We needed that, because (the Hornets) came out and hit their first two or three 3s. You start looking around and saying, "We're playing pretty good defense and they're throwing it in from the deep corner.'
"But Tyler Kempker stepped up and hit four big 3s. He's capable of that, we've seen it before, it's not unusual. We've got four or five guys who can shoot the ball well, so we have the potential to do that."
St. Elizabeth outscored Eugene 7-5 in the final quarter, which was played with a running clock due to the mercy rule.
Kempker scored a game-high 19 points, while Chase Dickerson added 16 for the Eagles and Travis Kempker had 13. The Kempker twins tied for the team lead with eight rebounds each.
Braydon Holtmeyer paced St. Elizabeth with 15 points, which included a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from half-court to finish the third quarter. Mason Monteer had a double-double for the Hornets with 11 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
Eugene (2-0) will play Blair Oaks at 6 p.m. Thursday in the winner's bracket semifinals, while St. Elizabeth (0-2) will play Calvary Lutheran at 4:30 p.m. Friday in the loser's bracket semifinals.
III
In the tournament's first game of the night, fifth-seeded School of the Osage upended fourth-seeded Russellville by a 63-59 score.
It was the second straight upset to start the tournament, as top-seeded Versailles fell 96-89 on Monday night to the eighth-seeded team, the Camdenton JV.
Russellville led 16-9 after one quarter, but Osage rallied to take a 30-27 edge into halftime. Osage led 46-41 after three periods and held on for the victory.
Hayden Drace paced Osage with 16 points, while Matthew Halsell added 15.
Levi Anderson scored a game-high 25 points for Russellville, while Zach Voss had 15 and Beau Bryant had 12.