Eureka Set to Visit MacMurray Saturday
PDF Version of Eureka Game Notes
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Eureka College men's basketball team will take its first road trip within the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in more than a month on Saturday when the Red Devils travel to Jacksonville, Ill. for a 3 p.m. league bout with the MacMurray Highlanders at Bill Wall Gymnasium.
AT A GLANCE
Date: Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017
Location: Jacksonville, Ill.
Site: Christine Bill Wall Gymnasium (1,500)
Series Since 1974: Eureka leads 26-25
Series in Jacksonville Since 1974: MacMurray leads 15-9
Last Meeting: MacMurray won 105-100, Feb. 3, 2016 in Jacksonville, Ill.
Last 10 Meetings: MacMurray leads 7-3
Current Streak: MacMurray W1
Wilde vs. MacMurray: 8-11
EUREKA RED DEVILS
Record: 8-2, 3-1 SLIAC
Head Coach: Chip Wilde, 10th season (Western Illinois '91)
MacMURRAY HIGHLANDERS
Record: 0-11, 0-5 SLIAC
Head Coach: Todd Creal, 10th season (Illinois College '98)
FOLLOW THE GAME
TV: MC22 (Mediacom, Tape Delayed)
Live Video: YouTube.com
Live Stats: None
Twitter Updates: @EurekaGameDay, @MacMurraySports
ABOUT EUREKA
Eureka has rolled to an 8-2 start through its first 10 games, including a 3-1 mark against SLIAC opponents. The Red Devils are 3-2 in five previous road contests this season and will try for their first road victory since Dec. 3 when the ball goes up in Jacksonville on Saturday.
Shea Feehan and Kendall Davis continue to spark the Eureka offense. Feehan ranks second in Division III with a 28.9 scoring average after a 25-point effort Wednesday against Fontbonne. Davis has cracked the national top-10 after his 32-point performance on Wednesday, now ranking ninth with with 24.9 points per game.
Feehan also ranks among the national leaders in free throws made (84, third), free throw percentage (94.4, third) and 3-pointers made per game (3.7, 11th).
As a team, Eureka pours in 92.0 points per game to trail only Greenville in the SLIAC and rank 10th nationally. Eureka's high-powered offense features only 11.2 turnovers per game, 27th fewest in Division III.
League coaches picked Eureka to finish eighth during a poll conducted before the start of the season.
The Red Devils return two full-time starters and 10 letterwinners overall from last season's team that went 12-13 overall and 10-8 in the SLIAC to tie for third place in the final league standings. Sixteen newcomers have joined the program, including nine first-year freshmen, to give EC a roster size of 26 student-athletes.
ABOUT MacMURRAY
The two-time defending SLIAC regular-season champion, MacMurray has sputtered to an an 0-11 record this season. MC is 0-5 in league play, having lost home contests to Greenville and Westminster.
The Highlanders nearly upset then-ranked #18 Augustana (Ill.) on opening night in Jacksonville, but ultimately lost to the Vikings, 75-69. In all, the Highlanders have been outscored by an average of 21.9 points per game this season and yield 96.3 points per contest, second-to-worst in Division III.
Junior forward Brent Long leads MC and ranks seventh in the SLIAC with a 18.2 scoring average. He also leads the team with a 9.1 rebounding average. Senior guard Tim Frazier also reaches double figures for MacMurray to the tune of 12.5 points per game. Both players have started all 11 games this season.
While MacMurray has struggled this season, the Highlanders rank among the conference leaders in rebounding. MC's team offensive rebounding average of 13.4 per game ranks third in the SLIAC, while the overall rebounding average of 38.7 ranks fourth.
MacMurray was tabbed sixth in the SLIAC in a preseason coaches poll.
A charter member of the SLIAC, MacMurray has won or shared five SLIAC regular-season championships. The Highlanders won the SLIAC Tournament in 1993 and again in 1999.
ABOUT THE HEAD COACHES
Chip Wilde is in his 10th season directing the Red Devils. The Macomb, Ill. native has 112 wins at EC, fourth-most in program history.
In all, Wilde has coached two SLIAC Players of the Year, 15 All-SLIAC selections, five SLIAC All-Tournament Team selections, four SLIAC All-Defensive Team picks and 29 SLIAC Player of the Week choices.
Todd Creal owns a 109-134 record in 10 seasons as the head coach at MacMurray. The two-time SLIAC Coach of the Year piloted the Highlanders to a share of back-to-back regular-season league titles in 2015 and 2016. MC has also qualified for six SLIAC Tournament semifinals under Creal and a berth in the title game in 2012.
Creal is a 1998 graduate of Illinois College. He has previous collegiate coaching experience as an assistant at IC, Augustana and Millikin.
SERIES VERSUS MacMURRAY
Eureka and MacMurray will meet for the 52nd time since 1974 on Saturday. The Red Devils hold a 26-25 edge in the previous 51 games, but the Highlanders are 15-9 in games played in Jacksonville.
Since becoming SLIAC rivals in 2007, MacMurray has won 13 of 20 regular-season games. The two squads have split their home-and-home series each of the last two seasons.
The two squads have met twice in the SLIAC Tournament semifinals. Eureka won both contests, a 95-81 victory in 2007 and a 98-78 triumph in 2010.
LAST TIME VERSUS MacMURRAY
Eureka's Shea Feehan exploded for 34 points, while brother Sam Feehan added 28, but MacMurray outscored the Red Devils 105-100 on Feb. 3, 2016 inside Wall Gymnasium.
The younger Feehan finished 15-of-20 from the field. He snagged eight rebounds, all on the defensive end of the floor. Tommy Goulding chipped in with 11 points, including a trio of 3-point field goals.
Alex Wiegand grabbed a team-high nine rebounds, and senior Greg Kent supplied four of Eureka's 12 assists on the night.
The Red Devils made 42-of-78 shot attempts from the field, but connected on only 7-of-27 3-point tries. MacMurray shot 35-of-68 from the floor and a blazing 17-of-31 from beyond the arc.
MacMurray's Kollin Keltner led a MacMurray offense that featured six players in double figures scoring 23 points. Brett Long added a double-double, scoring 16 points and grabbing 14 boards.
FOLLOW THE ACTION ONLINE ...
MacMurray will provide a live video stream via its YouTube channel. Fans can search "MacMurray Athletics" on YouTube or click a direct link from EurekaRedDevils.com prior to tip-off.
The Eureka College media relations staff will provide updates throughout the game via Twitter at @EurekaGameDay.
... AND WATCH THE GAME ON TV
Saturday's game will be rebroadcasted five times on television on MC22, available to any Mediacom subscribers in Illinois outside of the Quad Cities.
Nathan Baliva and Sam Ostrowski will have the call from Jacksonville. The first rebroadcast is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 9.
EUREKA PULLS AWAY FROM FONTBONNE
Behind 32 points from Kendall Davis, 25 points from Shea Feehan and a career-high 13 points off the bench from Jake Wood, Eureka won its seventh straight home game in a 98-78 SLIAC victory over Fontbonne, Wednesday night at Christine Bonati Bollwinkle Arena.
Fontbonne scored on its first trip after halftime to trail 43-38, but EC answered with an 11-2 burst for a 54-40 lead after three Feehan free throws. The Red Devils would go on to maintain the double-digit advantage for the remainder of the night. The final 20-point margin matched the hosts' biggest lead of the game.
Davis went 13-for-18 from the field to lead all scorers with 32 points. Feehan netted his 25 points on just eight field goal attempts thanks to a 16-for-17 effort from the free throw line. Wood needed only 12 minutes of action to get his career-high 13 points. Junior guard Ryan McElmurry distributed a career-high seven assists and sophomore forward Alex Wiegand collected a game-high eight rebounds.
EC shot 53 percent from the field Wednesday, the third time this season the Red Devils have shot 50 percent or better. Thirteen Red Devils saw the floor in the victory.