Red Devils Aim For SLIAC Tournament Bid Saturday
PDF Version of Eureka Game Notes
ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- The Eureka College women's basketball team will try to become the first St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference team to secure a bid to the 2017 SLIAC Tournament when the first-place Red Devils visit Fontbonne on Saturday at 1 p.m. in St. Louis, Mo. Eureka can secure one of the four tournament berths with one more league victory.
ABOUT EUREKA
Eureka is 14-5 overall and a perfect 10-0 against SLIAC opponents. The Red Devils can secure one of the four tournament berths with one more league victory.
EC is led offensively by the trio of junior Hayley Reneau (13.2 PPG), senior Michaela Balducci (11.2 PPG) and junior Kerrigan Dura (10.1 PPG). All three players shoot at least 42 percent from the floor and the group combines to make nearly 13 field goals per game.
With its balanced offense, seven different Red Devils score at least 5.1 points per game. The Red Devils are on track to have no player score at least 14.0 points per game for the first time since the 2005-06 season. Despite the lack of a major scorer, the Red Devils still rank in the national top 50 in scoring, putting up 72.9 points per game (48th).
The Red Devils continue to rank among the NCAA Division III national leaders in assists. EC averages 18.6 assists per game to rank fourth among 434 Division III teams. The current pace will give Eureka 465 assists over the course of a 25-game regular season -- five assists shy of the single-season team record of 470 set in 2004-05.
Additionally, Eureka makes 8.1 3-pointers per game, the most in the SLIAC and 19th-most in the country. The Red Devils' current pace will give them 202 triples on the season and allow them to challenge the program's single-season record of 223 set two seasons ago. The 2014-15 campaign was the only time Eureka has made more than 200 3-pointers in a season.
Eureka was picked to finish sixth in the SLIAC, according to a coaches' poll released before the start of the season.
RED DEVILS TOP WEBSTER WEDNESDAY
Luci Weis scored 13 points off the bench, helping the Red Devils run their SLIAC record to 10-0 with a 68-64 league win over Webster, Wednesday night at Christine Bonati Bollwinkle Arena.
The Red Devils led 20-11 after one period. The visitors closed the gap in the second quarter, pulling with three as late as the final minute before halftime. With the advantage down to a single possession, Weis beat the first-half horn with a 3-pointer from the corner to give EC a 38-32 lead at halftime.
Webster forced a 42-42 tie on Taylor Lucas's jumper with 6:29 left in the third quarter. WU eventually grabbed its first lead of the night when Lucas made two foul shots for a 47-45 edge with 3:35 to play in the third period. The score was tied 50-50 after the quarter.
EC led 62-58 after a bucket from sophomore Lexi Dooley at the 1:13 mark of the fourth quarter. The Gorloks pulled within two points on two more occasions, but another Dooley layup and four straight free throws from Dura and Weis in the final 23 seconds iced Eureka's first season sweep of Webster since the 2011-12 season.
Four Red Devils scored in double figures. Dooley netted 12, while Dura and sister Kennedy Dura each scored 11. Senior forward Michaela Balducci hauled down 11 rebounds, helping EC hold a decisive 37-24 advantage on the glass.
THE WIN STREAK CONTINUES
Wednesday's win was Eureka's 10th in a row over league opponents, tying the program's longest win streak in the SLIAC since joining the league prior to the 2006-07 season. Coupled with Greenville's Wednesday loss at Fontbonne, EC has a four-game lead in the loss column of the SLIAC standings with six regular-season games remaining.
Additionally, Eureka has won eight straight games overall, its longest overall stretch without a defeat since winning 10 in a row from Jan. 10, 2012 through Feb. 11, 2012.
500 REBOUNDS FOR MICHAELA
Eureka senior forward Michaela Balducci finished Wednesday's game with 11 rebounds, allowing the Eureka native to become the 15th player in Eureka women's basketball history to reach the 500-rebound mark.
Balducci has averaged 6.6 rebounds per game in 77 career appearances. She missed the final 21 games of her sophomore season after suffering a major knee injury. Balducci is the first Red Devil to get to 500 since former teammate Kelsey Shoemake, who finished her four-year career with 878 boards, third-most in program history.
ABOUT FONTBONNE
Fontbonne has won three straight contests to lift its overall season record to 11-10 and its SLIAC record to 7-5. FU, which routed defending SLIAC Tournament champion Greenville on Wednesday in St. Louis, currently owns the third spot for the upcoming SLIAC Tournament.
Sophomore guard Kaitlynn Walker is the Griffins' top scorer, pouring in 12.5 points per contest. She has started all 21 games, shooting 38 percent from the floor and 79 percent from the free throw line.
Senior Emily Haring will enter Saturday's game as the NCAA Division III leader with 165 assists. Haring distributed six assists in Wednesday's win over Greenville to break the all-time SLIAC record for assists with 546.
One of only four active charter members of the SLIAC, the Griffins are the winningest women's basketball program in conference history with 271 all-time league wins. Fontbonne has been to a league-high 17 SLIAC Tournaments since the event began in 1991. The Griffins have won seven regular-season SLIAC titles, including at least a share of four in a row from 1998 through 2001. The Griffins have also claimed three SLIAC Tournament championships and advanced to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in 2001.
The Griffins were picked seventh in a preseason SLIAC coaches' poll. Fontbonne has not qualified for the league tournament since being eliminated by the Red Devils in a semifinal contest in 2012.
ABOUT THE HEAD COACHES
Steve Thompson is in his third season as head coach of the Red Devils.
Since taking the reins of the program in 2014, Thompson has built on the Red Devils' sustained success and guided EC to the SLIAC Tournament in each of his first two seasons, including a title game appearance in 2015.
In addition to his role with the Eureka women's basketball program, Thompson has served EC as Director of Athletics since Jan. 2, 2014. Thompson has more than a decade of administrative experience in collegiate athletics, including five years at NCAA Division III Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and two years at NCAA Division I Kent State.
Maureen Sias, a 2003 graduate of Fontbonne, is in her third season as head coach of the Griffins. She is 30-41 overall, guiding FU to a sixth-place finish in 2014-15 and a seventh-place showing a year ago.
Sias played four seasons for the Griffins (1999-03) and holds the program's all-time record for free throw percentage (85%). She also served FU as an assistant coach for five seasons prior to being appointed head coach in 2014 and owns a master's degree from Fontbonne.
SERIES VERSUS FONTBONNE
Fontbonne leads the all-time series with the Red Devils, 15-11, since the first meeting between the two schools on Jan. 31, 2000, a game Fontbonne won 61-56 in Eureka. Since losing 13 of its first 14 all-time meetings to the Griffins, Eureka has won 10 of the last 12 in the series.
Since becoming SLIAC rivals in 2006, Fontbonne has a slim 11-10 advantage in 21 regular-season contests. EC also defeated FU for its first-ever SLIAC Tournament victory on Feb. 24, 2012.
The Red Devils are 4-7 against the Griffins in St. Louis. The two squads split their home-and-home series last season.
LAST TIME VERSUS FONTBONNE
A 3-point play from Lexi Dooley in the final minute provided the ninth and final lead change of Eureka's SLIAC game against Fontbonne on Jan. 4, sending the Red Devils to a 61-57 league win over the Griffins at Christine Bonati Bollwinkle Arena. Kerrigan Dura led the hosts with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Raven Venegas's jumper with 1:14 left in the fourth quarter broke the 10th and final tied score of the game and gave the visitors a 57-55 advantage. Eureka answered with Dooley's 3-point play just 22 seconds later on the ensuing possession for a 58-57 edge.
The Griffins later missed two looks at the go-ahead basket before Eureka extended its lead to 60-57 on two free throws from Dura with 13 seconds left. FU missed what would have been a game-tying triple with 10 seconds left before the Red Devils added an insurance free throw with just one second to play.
Hayley Reneau chipped in 18 points and six boards and Michaela Balducci hauled down 13 rebounds. Venegas paced the visitors with 14 points. Emily Haring, who entered the contest as the national leader in assists, had eight assists in the loss. The Griffins went just 1-for-12 from 3-point range.
FOLLOW THE ACTION ONLINE
Links to a live video stream and live statistics will be available at EurekaRedDevils.com, fontbonnegriffins.com and sliac.org
The Eureka College media relations staff will provide updates throughout the game via Twitter at @EurekaGameDay.