Posted: Nov 16, 2017
Preview: Eureka Travels to Central Michigan Saturday
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- The Eureka College men's basketball team will take its first road trip of the 2017-18 regular season on Saturday, visiting NCAA Division I Central Michigan for a noon CST tip-off in Mount Pleasant, Mich. The contest represents Eureka's 12th regular season game against a Division I opponent since the 2008-09 season.
PDF Version of Eureka Game Notes
ABOUT EUREKA
Eureka is 1-0 after earning its most lopsided victory since January 1994, a 117-52 opening-night triumph over USCAA Robert Morris-Springfield on Wednesday.
Eureka's 65-point win was its largest of the Chip Wilde coaching era and the program's widest margin of victory since a 100-25 romp over Moody Bible on Jan. 24, 1994. The 117 points scored marked Eureka's highest point total in 40 season openers as a member of NCAA Division III.
The Red Devils are in their 40th season as a member of NCAA Division III and their 11th season as a member of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Eureka returns three starters, all juniors, from last season's 13-win team that broke the program's single-season record for team scoring with 90.5 points per game. In all, EC returns 18 letterwinners from last season.
RED DEVILS RUN OVER ROBERT MORRIS-SPRINGFIELD
Shea Feehan scored a game-high 34 points, Hank Thomas added 25 points and the Red Devils' earned their largest victory in more than two decades in Wednesday's 117-52 season-opening win over USCAA Robert Morris-Springfield at Christine Bonati Bollwinkle Arena.
The Red Devils trailed for only 91 seconds Wednesday and took the lead for good when Thomas drilled a 3 for a 5-4 lead at the 17:29 mark of the half. Another Thomas triple gave the Red Devils their first double-digit cushion, 17-5, and the rout was on. Two Feehan foul shots gave EC its largest lead of the first half, 42-10, and capped a 40-6 run that covered nearly 13 minutes midway through the period.
The Eureka advantage wasn't challenged after halftime. A Koby White layup with 7:05 left in the game allowed EC to reach the century mark on opening night for the first time since 1976. Another bucket from White gave the hosts their largest lead, 107-37, with 4:55 to go.
FEEHAN'S PUSH FOR 1,000
Shea Feehan's 34-point effort Wednesday against Robert Morris-Springfield was the 13th 30-point game of his 38-game collegiate career. The Peoria Notre Dame product continued his march to 1,000 career points with an 11-for-17 effort from the floor and a 6-for-10 showing from beyond the arc. He didn't commit a turnover in 26 minutes and will enter Saturday's contest at Central Michigan with 962 points, 38 shy of 1,000.
Just the fourth player in program history to score 600 points in a season, Feehan will become Eureka's 20th 1,000-point scorer of the modern era and Eureka's first since Jordan Kindred and Mark Lessen eclipsed the mark in 2013. Feehan was an All-SLIAC First Team choice, an All-Region pick by D3hoops.com and set new single-season Division-III era school records last season with a 26.7 scoring average, 173 free throws made and a .930 free throw percentage.
EUREKA AGAINST DIVISION I
Saturday's game in Mount Pleasant will be Eureka's 12th regular season game against an NCAA Division I opponent since Chip Wilde's arrival as head coach in 2007. The Red Devils have yet to break through for a victory against their scholarship opposition.
Western Illinois and Eastern Illinois and hosted Eureka three times apiece to be the Red Devils' most common Division I opponent. The closest call for Eureka was a 77-74 defeat at Ohio Valley Conference member SIUE on Dec. 18, 2012.
Eureka played a pair of Division I exhibition games earlier this month, dropping a 122-65 decision at North Texas on Nov. 10 and a 96-69 setback at Loyola (Ill.) last Sunday.
ABOUT CENTRAL MICHIGAN
Central Michigan is 1-1 through its first week of the season. The Chippewas opened the campaign with a 108-48 blitz of NAIA Siena Heights on Nov. 10 before dropping a 72-65 to in-state heavyweight Michigan last Monday.
Shawn Roundtree has been CMU's top scorer with 16.5 points per game on a 67 percent shooting from the floor. He's gone 5-for-8 from 3-point range and 4-for-4 from the free throw line. Cecil Williams has tacked on 13.5 points per game and leads the Chippewas with 8.0 boards per game. In all, CMU has placed four scorers in double figures on average.
The Chippewas went 16-16 overall last season and 6-12 against Mid-American Conference opponents. CMU was picked sixth in the MAC West Division in a preseason coaches poll.
MEET THE HEAD COACHES
The owner of more than two decades of coaching experience at the collegiate level, Chip Wilde will enter his 11th season as head coach at Eureka in 2017-18. The upcoming campaign marks Wilde's 20th season as a collegiate basketball head coach.
Wilde has proved to be one of the most successful head coaches in the storied history of Eureka men's basketball, establishing the Red Devils as a steady presence in the SLIAC both on the court and in the classroom. Wilde entered the 2017-18 campaign with 117 wins, fourth-most in the 99-year history of the program.
Keno Davis is in his sixth season as head coach at Central Michigan. Davis, a 1995 Iowa graduate and son of longtime collegiate head coach Tom Davis, owns a 78-83 mark at Central Michigan.
Davis made an immediate splash in his first season as a collegiate head coach in 2007-08, piloting Drake to 28 wins, the Bulldogs' first Missouri Valley Conference championship since 1971 and their first NCAA Tournament bid since 1971. He was named the coach of the year by six national organizations, including the Associated Press, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, and The Sporting News.
He later put up a 46-50 record in three seasons as head coach at Providence.
FOLLOW THE ACTION ONLINE
Central Michigan will provide a live video broadcast and live statistics of Saturday's game. A subscription and fee will be required to view the video stream. In-game updates will also be available via Twitter at @EurekaGameDay.