As the regular season came to an end, both basketball teams prepared for substate. The boys went into the tournament as the No. 6 seed, making their first game against the No. 3 seeded Kingman Eagles. The game was hosted by Kingman and tipped off at six o’clock on Monday, Feb. 26.

        “We expected them to come out and knew we had to play good D,” sophomore Peyton Winter said. “In the end, it really just came down to ball possessions.”

        The Cardinals were led by senior Christian Hedrick’s 27 points through regulation time, sending them into overtime against the Eagles with a 45-45 score. The Cardinals were unable to pull off the upset, though, and dropped the game, 52-54.

        “We played well,” Hedrick said. “If we would’ve played like that all season, we would have had more wins.”

        The loss ended the season for the boys and brought their overall record to 4-17. With three sophomores and one freshman starting for the team this year, freshman Jonathan Wright said he is hopeful for next season.

        “We did pretty good for a bunch of freshmen and sophomores,” he said. “We’ll probably do a lot better next year because we will be older and more experienced.”