There’s a bit of the unknown when Silver Lake travels to the Burlington Invitational.
 
And that’s just fine with Eagles girls’ coach Kyle Porter.
 
“I think you get down here and get to see teams you’re normally not used to, many times bigger, 4A schools,” Porter said. “Teams like Ottawa, that has a lot of size and athleticism, and Independence, which is just a very well-rounded team that plays to their role. It’s good to get out of northeast Kansas and compete against teams like this.”
 
It’s even better when your team handles the different styles as Porter’s Eagles did this weekend. Facing three different Class 4A schools in Paola, Ottawa and Independence, Silver Lake answered the bell each time, going 3-0 to take the title at Burlington.
 
The Eagles opened tourney play with a 52-25 romp past Paola before handling Ottawa 59-32 in the semifinals. Independence proved to be a sterner test in the finals with Silver Lake pulling free from a two-point halftime lead for a 52-39 win.
 
“Tonight we didn’t have our best stuff, missed so many point-blank shots,” Porter said. “But to be gritty and tough and persevere through that half when we didn’t have it and stay engaged and trust in one another, that will pay dividends down the road. There will be games where we face adversity like that and this tournament provided us a great test for being able to handle that.”
 
With the title, the Eagles improved to 10-1 on the season.
 
In the championship game, Independence made a concerted effort to clamp down on Silver Lake standout post MaKenzie McDaniel, who had scored 14 points in the semifinal win over Ottawa. They were effective, harassing McDaniel into a tough shooting night where she finished with just 7 points, though she did grab 13 rebounds.
 
But Silver Lake has plenty of other options and in the title game, McKinley Kruger came up big. She hit 5 3-pointers in the game and finished with 25 points, earning tournament MVP honors.
 
“McKinley was just fantastic tonight and really picked up a lot of the slack,” Porter said of Kruger, who also scored 17 points and added 5 assists and 6 steals in the semifinals. “MaKenzie had an off night, but one of the great things about our team is somebody is going to pick you up. It may be one player one night and another player another night. But that’s the great thing about having a balanced team. We can score in a number of different ways and McKinley led the charge tonight.”
 
Silver Lake suffered its only loss leading into the tournament, dropping a 48-47 triple-overtime decision to Mid-East League foe Riley County. Instead of letting the loss derail them, the Eagles regrouped nicely at Burlington.
 
“I thought we responded great,” Porter said. “We learned a lot from Riley and any time you win or lose you have to own the outcome, learn and improve. I thought our kids did great with that and we had a great practice Monday and a good week.”
 
Silver Lake finished third at the Class 3A state tournament last year, going 24-2 overall. Returning every player off that team, expectations are high this year for the Eagles.
 
Midway through the season, Porter is pleased with where his team is at.
 
“As a team, we’re right where we need to be,” he said. “Any time you have high expectations you have a tendency to look ahead at what you want to accomplish. The hard thing to do is focus one game at a time, one practice at a time and be consistently focused on getting better. At times, we look up and think about the outcome at the end, but right now it’s just staying consistent and trust that will get us to where we want to be at the end of the year.”
 

 
MISSION VALLEY MAKES HISTORY WITH FLINTHILLS SHOOTOUT TITLE
 
Not that winning the regular season Flint Hills League title wasn’t a big deal for Mission Valley.
 
It was. It marked only the second time the Vikings had accomplished the feat, sharing this year’s crown with Osage City after winning it outright in 2017-18.
 
But walking off the floor of White Auditorium on Saturday night, there was something even bigger for the Vikings. A 46-27 dismantling of Osage City gave Mission Valley its first-ever Flinthills Shootout title.
 
“It’s really big for the girls,” Mission Valley coach Ben Packard said. “We’ve obviously got goals for at the end of the year, but this is the first time we’ve ever done it in school history and we had talked about that plenty. But the message was just, ‘Enjoy the moment.’”
 
Mission Valley certainly enjoyed its week in Emporia this time around. The Vikings played the role of No. 1 seed at the tourney well, winning all three games by at least 19 points.
 
They opened with a 50-21 win over Central Heights and then disposed of Council Grove 47-21 in the semifinals. After squeaking past Osage City 31-29 in mid-December, Saturday’s title game looked like it might follow a similar path with Mission Valley leading just 16-11 at halftime.
 
But Adaline Bloomfield got hot in the second half, hitting 3 3-pointers to spark the Vikings to a big second half. Mission Valley outscored the Indians 30-16 in the second half to take a 46-27 victory.
 
“We’ve had a lot of close games with Osage City over the past few years,” Packard said. “We know each other really well and it was not letting the moment be too big for you. We talked at halftime to just keep going and make sure they had confidence. Osage City adjusted a few things from the last time we played them and we told the girls, they did that because we’re good and made them have to adjust to us.”
 
Mission Valley was denied an undefeated sweep of league play when Northern Heights upset the Vikings 49-48 the week ahead of the league tournament. But Packard said his team responded well to the defeat.
 
“I think that’s one they want to have back, but this league is one where any given night somebody can get hot and beat you,” he said. “I hope (this tournament) title can give us some momentum for the rest of the season.”
 
 

 
AT LONG LAST, HANOVER ADDS MISSING TVL TOURNEY TITLE
 
Over the last decade, few teams have been as consistent in the Twin Valley League as Hanover’s girls.
 
The Wildcats were undefeated back-to-back league champions in 2019 and 2020 after going 11-1 in league play in 2017 and 2018. Last year, the Wildcats 11-1 again, finishing runner-up to Centralia.
 
Yet for all the success the Wildcats have had, a league tournament title had eluded them. Since the formation of the Twin Valley League in 2002, Hanover had never won the league tournament  – its last league tournament coming in 1993 in the Blue Valley League.
 
Monday night, Hanover ended that drought. The Wildcats used a 22-point second quarter to break free from a tight game with Doniphan West in the postponed tourney championship game at Washington County and then fought off every Mustang charge the rest of the way, taking a 71-61 win.
 
Hanover improved to 11-0 with Monday’s win its closest of the season. The Wildcats are averaging 60.8 points per game this season with an average margin of victory of 29.3 points per game.
 

 
THIRD TIME MORE CHARMING FOR ELYRIA CHRISTIAN
 
There was a different feel to winning the Cougar Classic at Centre on Saturday for Elyria Christian.
 
For starters, the tournament just felt normal. After having tournament sites and schedules altered each of the last two seasons for COVID reasons, all of this year’s tournament games were played in Lost Springs this season.
 
It certainly enhanced the experience as Elyria Christian captured its third straight tournament crown. The Eagles were dominant, too, beating host Centre 54-14 in the quarterfinals, Marion 40-26 in the semifinals and Rural Vista 45-30 in the title game.
 
Ryland Hawkinson led the way in the championship game, scoring 24 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. She finished the tournament averaging 16 points and 9 rebounds per game. Allie Stone added 13 points per game at the tourney and had 5 3-pointers in the first half of the semifinal win over Marion to give the Eagles a big cushion.
 
Elyria Christian is now 11-2 on the season with its losses coming to Moundridge and Class 1A Division I No. 1 Little River. The Eagles currently have the top seed in the Solomon 1A I sub-state.
 

 
RIVERSIDE CONTINUES TURNAROUND SEASON
 
Already off to the best start in program history, Riverside added some hardware to the trophy case by winning the title at the McLouth Invitational. It marked the second straight year the Cyclones came home from McLouth as champions.
 
Riverside never was really challenged at the tournament, routing McLouth 55-19 in the quarterfinals and Pleasant Ridge 53-25 in the semifinals. Taylor Weishaar scored 15 points in the title game to lead the Cyclones to a 53-36 win over Maur Hill.
 
Weishaar, Halle Studer and Abby O’Grady were all-tournament picks for the Cyclones with Studer adding 10 points in the title game and O’Grady 8.
 
Riverside is now 11-1 on the season, its lone loss to unbeaten Nemaha Central (42-31).
 

 
BALANCED SANTA FE TRAIL DOMINATES AT ROYAL VALLEY
 
A balanced offense was a big key in Santa Fe Trail’s girls returning to the state tournament last year for the first time since winning the 2014 Class 4A Division II state championship.
 
And it’s been a huge key to the Chargers’ continuing that success under second-year head coach Jacee Kramer as three players average in double figures between 10.8 and 12.3 points per game with another not far off at 8.4 points per game.
 
That balance was on display as the Chargers won the title at the Panther Classic at. Royal Valley, going 3-0 in the round-robin tournament. Trail had five players score eight or more points in a 59-49 win over Royal Valley to start the tourney and a 56-35 win over Wabaunsee to cap it.
 
In between, four players scored eight or more in a 50-34 win over Chapman that ultimately decided the title.
 
Junior Kaelee Washington, who leads the Chargers with her 12.3 scoring average, had a double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds and threw in 5 blocks against Royal Valley. Against Wabaunsee, she had 8 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals. Abby Clark had a career-high 7 steals against Chapman and Braegan Buessing had 5 assists against Royal Valley.
 
Trail improved to 10-1 overall with the lone loss coming 48-43 in overtime to Osage City in the season opener. In the 10 games since, the Chargers have only had one game decided by less than double-digits, a 39-37 win over Burlington.
 

 

PRAIRIE VIEW GETS BIG BOOST WITH TITLE IN UNIONTOWN
 
Going into last week’s Ken Holt Memorial Tournament at Uniontown, Prairie View coach Casey Konda felt her team had steadily improved since the start of the season. It just hadn’t shown up on the Buffaloes’ record, taking a 3-5 mark into the tourney with losses in four of its previous five games.
 
So coming out of the tourney with a 3-0 mark and the title was exactly what Konda said her team needed.
 
“It was an important tournament for us to win,” Konda said. “Our girls have been showing growth and having some success but they needed to see that they are capable of winning a tournament. They were able to grind out an OT win and then come out the next night and put together their most complete game of the season. I was very proud of their teamwork and grit.”
 
Prairie View opened the tourney with a 54-25 rout of Jayhawk-Linn, but then got a big-time challenge from Kansas City Christian. The Buffaloes survived 37-31 in overtime and rode that momentum to a 46-18 rout of Uniontown in the championship game.
 
KJ Gregg hit 4 3-pointers in the title game to spark the Buffaloes. Kally Stroup finished the week averaging 13 points per game to lead the Buffaloes.