Golden Eagles Best Red Devils, 83-68

LOUISVILLE, KY. – The Eureka men's basketball team dropped an 83-68 road contest at Spalding on Saturday.

Eureka senior big man Cody Baer (Peoria, Ill./Dunlap/Southwestern Illinois)) racked up a game-high 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting and gathered eight rebounds in a losing effort. Peewee Brown (Peoria, Ill./Manual/Lincoln) added nine points and five rebounds.

Freshman Jonah Lauff (Pana, Ill./Pana) contributed a career-high seven points in 11 minutes, while Sam DeJesus (Delavan, Ill./Delavan) and Raymond Bandzoumouna (Lisle, Ill./Lisle) each had a career-high six points.

The Golden Eagles, known for playing well on their home court, jumped out to an eight-point lead in the first three minutes of the game. It took six minutes for the Red Devils to catch up.

A 3-pointer by Eureka's Ben Carter (Morton, Ill./Morton) off an assist by Baer gave the Red Devils a one-point edge with 11:18 left in the first half. A jumper by Brown a minute later made it 19-16, and the visitors held a six-point lead after a 3 by DeJesus with 8 1/2 minutes left.

Within a couple minutes, however, the Golden Eagles were back on top and they went into halftime with a nine-point advantage.

The Red Devils weren't able to close the gap early in the second half, and the home team continued to build on it from there.

Spalding's Anthony Dillard (21 points) and Andre Crawford (20 points) both hit the 20-point mark, and Caden Bradford had 19.

On Wednesday, Eureka (4-4, 1-2 SLIAC) will look to get one back from Blackburn (3-5, 2-1 SLIAC). The Beavers held off the Red Devils, 73-62, in the teams' first matchup of the season last weekend.