Eureka Knocks Off SLIAC Leader Principia in Overtime, 78-72
EUREKA – Don't look now, but the Eureka men's basketball team is the hottest team in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
The Red Devils outlasted SLIAC leader Principia in a 78-72 overtime victory on Senior Night at Christine Bonati Bollwinkle Arena and Convocation Center on Tuesday. It was the team's second straight overtime triumph and its fifth straight win coming on the heels of a five-game losing streak in mid-January.
"That was a great win," said Eureka senior big man Logan Dorethy (Hamilton, Ill./West Hancock/Hannibal-LaGrage). "Great way to go out here in the regular season on Senior Night. It's another team that we lost to earlier, but we got one back, and it feels amazing."
Fellow Eureka big man Cody Baer (Peoria, Ill./Dunlap/Southwestern Illinois) finished with a team-high 16 points and seven rebounds while shooting 6-for-11 from the field. After being held to two points in the first half, he became a problem for the Panthers the rest of the way.
Senior guard Austyn Ellison (Hudson, Ill./Bloomington Central Catholic) tallied 15 points, five boards and a team-high four assists, shooting 7-for-13 from the floor and hitting some big shots along the way. Dorethy notched a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds on 6-of-10 shooting.
Sophomore Peewee Brown (Peoria, Ill./Manual/Lincoln) added 13 points, senior Charlie McKinty (Elmwood, Ill./Elmwood/Illinois College) contributed 10 on 4-of-6 shooting after missing the better part of the last month due to injury.
Noah Persich (Peoria, Ill./Metamora/Parkland) also posted nine points, including four clutch ones in overtime.
Nothing came easy.
The Red Devils fought their way into overtime after trailing by two at halftime.
Principia stayed ahead until Ellison scored on an assist by Dorethy to make it 52-51 with 9:04 left.
That set up a back-and-forth final stretch that included three lead changes, but had the Panthers on top or tied towards the end of the regulation.
Eureka's Peewee Brown tied the game at 61-61 with a pair of free throws with less than two minutes to play. A minute later, the Panthers went ahead with a jumper by leading scorer Jaquan Adams. The Red Devils answered with a game-tying layup by Dorethy, and that ended up being the last bucket of regulation.
Principia and Eureka both got good looks in the last 15 seconds, but neither went in, with Brown's last-second baseline jumper just missing to send the game to overtime.
Overtime began with Eureka leading scorer Baer drawing a quick foul and making both free throws.
Principia responded and scored on its first two possessions of overtime, but as they did against Fontbonne on Saturday, the Red Devils gained the upper hand early by being efficient on the offensive end.
The home team jumped out to a six-point lead less than halfway through the period after Persich hit two key jumpers, Ellison knocked down one in the lane and Baer scored a layup on an assist by Brown to make it 73-67 and prompt a Principia timeout.
With a little over a minute remaining, Principia cut the lead in half with a 3-pointer by Kevin Wingert, then looked to score in transition, but Baer stole Jake Kampf's pass up the court and forced the Panthers to foul.
Brown made 1 of 2 foul shots, and after coming down with a rebound on a 3-point attempt by Adams, Dorethy went to the line and put away two to cap it all off.
When the final buzzer sounded, the Eureka student section stormed the center of the court to celebrate with the team – a cathartic ending to a raucous night at The Reagan.
"That was the best environment that I've played in in all of my college career," Ellison said. "I'm really grateful for everybody that came out and supported us."
The win put the Red Devils right where they want to be heading into the last game of the regular season. The fourth-place maroon and gold are now 8-5 in SLIAC play, sitting right behind 8-4 Fontbonne and Webster and only one game behind the 9-4 Panthers.
"We're just playing our best basketball at the right time," Ellison said, "and we're finishing games off the way that we're supposed to."
Before the game, Eureka honored its six seniors: Dorethy, Ellison, McKinty, Andrew Gonzalez (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein), Blake Castonguay (Watseka, Ill./Watseka/Illinois College) and Logan Dilley (Dawson, Ill./Tri-Point). The group couldn't have asked for a better result in the end.
"Eureka College, man -- what a place," Dorethy said after the win. "The crowd was great. The students were great. This was a great dub, and we've still got work to do."
The Red Devils (10-14, 8-5 SLIAC) will close the regular season on the road against Spalding (7-5, 6-6 SLIAC) on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT.
