Red Devils Drop Hard-Fought Battle Against Greenville, 116-109.
EUREKA, IL. – The Eureka men's basketball team came up just short in a high-scoring home matchup against Greenville on Wednesday, falling 116-109.
Eureka fought hard in a back-and-forth battle which featured 30 lead changes, but the Red Devils struggled to slow down Greenville's offense in the second half. Despite going into halftime up 55-47 and refusing to let Greenville regain the lead for the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half, Eureka fell behind with just over 9 minutes left on the clock. Although the lead would change hands a few more times before the final buzzer, the Panthers would ultimately pull away. With tonight's win, Greenville strengthens their position at the top of the conference standings, moving to 7-2 in SLIAC play.
Peewee Brown (Peoria, Ill./Manual/Lincoln) led the Red Devils in scoring, notching a career-high 39 points, along with 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals. Cody Baer (Peoria, Ill./Dunlap/Southwestern Illinois) posted his ninth double-double of the season, putting up 27 points and picking up 15 rebounds. Andrew Coker (Washington, Ill./Washington) joined Baer and Brown in the double-digits, adding 10 points off the bench for the maroon and gold.
Dylan Logsdon (Meridian, Idaho/Mountain View) subbed in to tack on another 9 points, and Jonah Lauff (Pana, Ill./Pana) joined in on the scoring with another 7. Noah Persich (Peoria, Ill./Metamora) pitched in 5 points and 4 assists.
Six Panthers tallied totals in the double digits. Kiarie Patrick led the way with a double-double that included 23 points and 14 assists. Carlos Crespo, Ja'Rod Webb, Vincent Rodriguez, Grimmett Glenn, and Jamie Calmese added 19, 14, 13, 10 and 10 points, respectively. All six of these players came in off a very productive Panther bench, which led the way tonight, putting up 107 of their 116 points.
Eureka (4-12, 2-7 SLIAC) is back in action on Saturday, as they play host to more Panthers, taking on Principia College (4-11, 3-5 SLIAC) at 3:00 PM CST. Principia will come to Eureka on Saturday following their home contest against Spalding in Elsah on Thursday, where they will be looking to extend their 2-game winning streak to 3.
