Eureka Falls to Emmaus in Regular-Season Finale, 77-72

EUREKA — The Eureka men dropped their regular-season finale to Emmaus 77-72 in non-conference play Monday night at Christine Bonati Bollwinkle Arena.

The Red Devils (11-14) held a slim advantage for most of the game, but the visiting Eagles (4-22) seized it for the last time on a jumper by Austin Brammer with less than five minutes left.

Nacio Dillard followed it with a 3-pointer to extend the lead to four and Brammer hit two more triples down the stretch to help seal it.

Brammer racked up a game-high 26 points while shooting 9 of 12 from the field and hitting 8 of 11 3-point tries. Dillard followed with 18 points on 5-of-11 shooting, knocking down a pair of 3s and sinking all six of his free-throw attempts.

The Red Devils had four players finish in double figures. Koby White (Brimfield, Ill./Brimfield) posted 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including a 3 of 6 from distance. Drew Barth (Minonk, Ill./Fieldcrest) and Hank Thomas (Peoria, Ill./Richwoods) had 11 apiece and Alex Wiegand (Washington, Ill./Washington) followed with 10 points to go with his team-high eight rebounds.

Emmaus shot 54 percent from the field and 57.7 percent from beyond the arc, and on this particular night, EC couldn't match it.

The Red Devils went 29-70 from the field (41.4 percent), 11-for-36 from deep (30.6 percent) and 3-for-10 from the stripe (30 percent). They pulled down 18 offensive boards and tallied 20 second-chance points, but it wasn't enough.

The loss did, however, feature a pair of milestones for Thomas, who surpassed Craig Negangard and moved up to No. 6 on the Red Devils' all-time scoring list with 1,509 points and tied for third in 3-pointers (214) with Chris Peterson.

With the regular season complete, EC can now turn its full attention to its upcoming St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference semifinal game against Greenville. The Red Devils will take on the Panthers for the third time this season on Friday in Webster at 6 p.m.