Holiday Hoops Invitational: Record-setting game for Eureka

The Eureka Lady Wildcats carved out a couple spots in the record book of the Holiday Hoops Invitational with their performance on Thursday afternoon.

Eureka's 75-56 win against the Quincy (Ill.) Lady Blue Devils at Rackers Fieldhouse earned them some distinction in the 22-year history of the event.

The Lady Wildcats' 75-point effort put them in a tie for sixth among the single-best scoring output for a single team in a game at the tournament. And the combined 131 points in Thursday's game was good enough for the ninth-best total put up by a pair of teams in a game.

While the end result ended up being an easy victory for the Lady Wildcats, it didn't appear it would be so easy in the game's early stages.

Quincy held a 22-18 lead after the first quarter and was up 34-33 at halftime. The Lady Blue Devils were still in front 36-35 after the teams traded buckets in the first minute of the second quarter.

But Eureka took the lead for good with an 8-0 spurt that started with a jumper by Annika Herbert and never looked back.

The Lady Wildcats' lead was 56-45 after three periods and they outscored the Lady Blue Devils 19-11 in the fourth quarter.

A big key to the victory was a huge edge at the free-throw line for Eureka. While Quincy made all of its attempts in the game, going 6-for-6 from the charity stripe, that effort was dwarfed by a 29-of-43 effort by Eureka. Quincy committed 24 fouls in the contest to just 11 for Eureka.

Eureka's Claire Martin was credited for four points in the game despite taking just a single shot. Her first basket came with roughly two minutes left when Eureka missed a free throw and a Quincy player grabbed the rebound and inexplicably put home a layup in the Eureka basket. With Martin being the closest Eureka player in the area, she was credited with the score.

Martin then added a layup 50 seconds later on her only true shot attempt for the last of her four points.

Nadia Farmer racked up 17 points to lead Eureka to the win. Grace Archambault, who paced all players with 11 rebounds, added 16 points for the Lady Wildcats. Makayla Jackson added 13, Herbert had 12 and Sarah Hardin chipped in with 11.

Jada Humphrey paced Quincy with 15 points and Arriana Benjamin had 14 to go with a team-high nine rebounds.

Eureka will play Helias at 4 p.m. today in the fifth-place game, while Quincy will play Alton (Ill.) at 2:30 p.m. in the seventh-place contest.