Eureka Knocks Off Webster for First SLIAC Win, 70-63
EUREKA – The Eureka men's basketball team knocked off Webster 70-63 to clinch its first St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win of the season on Wednesday.
The Red Devils set the pace early and led from beginning to end in a matchup between third- and second-ranked teams in the SLIAC preseason poll at Christine Bonati Bollwinkle Arena and Convocation Center.
Three Eureka players finished in double figures on the night. Cody Baer (Peoria, Ill./Dunlap/Southwestern Illinois) led the way with a 23-point performance. The senior big man shot 10-for-18 from the field, grabbed five rebounds and added two blocks, two steals and an assist.
Ben Carter (Morton, Ill./Morton) made three 3-pointers, tallied a career-high 14 points, distributed a career-high six assists and had a pair of steals, while Peewee Brown (Peoria, Ill./Manual/Lincoln) added 13 points, along with a team-high eight rebounds, two steals and two blocks.
Sam DeJesus (Delavan, Ill./Delavan) notched five points, four rebounds and two blocks in his first career start. Jalen Johnson (Rock Falls, Ill./Rock Falls/Sauk Valley) registered a season-high four assists.
Dylan Logsdon (Meridian, Idaho/Mountain View) and Noah Persich (Peoria, Ill./Metamora/Parkland) contributed five and four points off the bench, respectively.
Webster stayed in the game by beating the Red Devils on the boards throughout the night and playing tough in the paint, but the Red Devils maintained their advantage by consistently taking care of the ball, getting to the free-throw line and holding the Gorloks to 14.3 percent from 3-point range.
Eureka distributed a season-high 17 assists and committed a season-low eight turnovers. The home team shot 13-for-17 from the free-throw line.
The Red Devils led by as many as 11 points in the first half. Baer followed a 3-pointer at the end of the shot clock by Brown with a jumper on an assist by Blake Logsdon (Meridian, Idaho/Mountain View) to make it 19-9 with less than 10 minutes to play.
Later, a 3-pointer by Eureka's Jonah Lauff (Pana, Ill./Pana/Sauk Valley) on an assist by Johnson extended it to 11 with 1:27 remaining.
The Gorloks scored the last five points of the half to make it 34-28 at halftime. They scored the first two buckets of the second half, too, setting up a slugfest to the finish.
Webster tied the game at 46-46 with a 3 by Jalen Davis with 11:19 to play. Logsdon answered with a 3 off an assist by Baer, but Davis came back with a bucket on the other end to make it a one-point lead with just over 10 minutes to play.
A pair of Carter free throws started an 8-0 run that included a jumper and a pair of free throws by Persich and a big floater after an offensive rebound by Raymond Bandzoumona Jr (Lisle, Ill./Lisle).
After that, the closest Webster came was four points. When Alpha Diallo made it 61-57 with 4:18 left, Baer responded with a jumper to bring it back to six. He also drew a foul and made them both after Markus Becton made a jumper following a Webster steal to make it 65-59 inside three minutes to go.
The Red Devils played with poise and closed it out from there.
Davis, Becton and Jason Coleman all finished with 13 points for the Gorloks. Karl Moore Jr. pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds but was held scoreless on the night. Jemad Sykes II similarly recorded 11 boards and four points.
Eureka will vie for its second straight SLIAC win on Saturday when the Red Devils (4-3, 1-1 SLIAC) take on Spalding (2-4, 2-0 SLIAC) on the road at 2 p.m. CT. The Golden Eagles beat Greenville 104-100 and Blackburn 64-57 to start off league play.