Eureka Eager to Get One Back from Spalding, Extend Win Streak

EUREKA – As the month of January wound down, Eureka College men's basketball coach Chip Wilde was often repeating a familiar refrain: Our goal is to play our best basketball February.

"That's what we're trying to do every year, year-in, year-out," the Red Devils' 15th-year coach said. "I don't know if we're there yet, but I kind of feel like we're at least starting to trend that way."

February is here now, and the Red Devils seem to be on pace to to meet that goal.

On Sunday at 3 p.m., Eureka will host Spalding in a pivotal St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference showdown and whiteout day at Christine Bonati Bollwinkle Arena and Convocation Center.

The Red Devils find themselves gunning for their fourth straight win and coming off a 76-66 road triumph over Blackburn on the first day of February. That allowed the team to leapfrog the Beavers into second place in the league standings.

"I think that we were ready to play," Wilde said. "I felt that we were ready to play up and down our lineup and down our bench. I felt like we could have put in anybody in there and would have gotten good minutes. And maybe I've said that before, but that's really how I'm starting to feel about this team."

After a competitive first half, the Red Devils put together a dominant second half in which the team held Blackburn to just six points in the first seven-plus minutes of play. They amassed a game-high 23-point lead before the Beavers warmed back up and got within 10 points.

"I think that they went cold, but I think that a lot of that had to do with our effort on the defensive end," Wilde said. "We have been working on our defensive effort and defensive execution."

The Red Devils starters set the tone with consistent play on both ends of the floor, and every other rotation player who entered the game kept it up. Eureka shot 64 percent from the field in the second half and made 5 of 10 3-point attempts. All five starters played over 30 minutes and four of the five reached double figures, with junior center Logan Dorethy and senior guard Ian Milsteadt each posting at least 20 points.

"When your best players play well," Wilde said with a grin, "it makes the coach look good."

The last time Eureka took on Spalding, the team wasn't at its best.

The Red Devils fell behind midway through the second half and couldn't bridge the gap in time, ultimately falling 83-78. The team shot just 35.2 percent from the floor, got outrebounded 46-38 and allowed 6-foot-5 Spalding forward Christian Stewart to score 34 points.

Wilde saw that performance as not being unique, in the sense that there weren't any new team weaknesses that were exposed in that game; the Golden Eagles just happened to be the team that managed to take advantage of them.

The Red Devils (10-9, 6-2 SLIAC) have continuously been working on improving areas of emphasis that they've known has needed improvement, such as getting stronger in the lane, at the rim, at the defensive end and on the glass.

The Golden Eagles (6-12, 4-4 SLIAC) also recently got the best of Blackburn, topping the Beavers 65-61 last Saturday. Stewart, who leads the SLIAC in scoring with 18.8 points per game, tallied 19 points, nine rebounds and three blocks in the win. Brandin Obidike added 15 points and Troy Amanor contributed 10.

The 6-foot-6 Amanor wasn't available when Eureka came to Louisville last month, but he is averaging 10.5 points per game and has been a strong addition to the Golden Eagles' arsenal since returning to the lineup.

"I think that's going to be a difference in the game – how he plays and how we match up with him," Wilde said of Amanor.

Amanor and Stewart make up an imposing front court for any team in the league to tangle with, and Wilde knows the Red Devils are going to have to come ready to play and to showcase the adjustments and improvements they've made since the last matchup, particularly when it comes to containing Stewart.

"He's a tough matchup for everybody," he added. "It's not just a Eureka College problem. We've got to try to limit what he does the best you can.

"They're a very big and kind of inside-oriented, so that's what you have to be prepared for."