Red Devils Welcome Iowa Wesleyan For Senior Day
PDF Version of Eureka Game Notes
EUREKA, Ill. -- The Eureka College women's basketball team will bring the 2016-17 regular season to a close on Saturday, welcoming St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rival Iowa Wesleyan to Christine Bonati Bollwinkle Arena for a 1 p.m. start. Eureka will host its annual Senior Day ceremony immediately following the game, honoring Michaela Balducci, Luci Weis and student manager Whitley Gregoire.
OUTRIGHT SLIAC CHAMPIONS
Eureka earned the institution's first-ever outright SLIAC championship on Wednesday, pulling away from Westminster for a 99-75 win at Christine Bonati Bollwinkle Arena. All five starters scored in double figures for the Red Devils, who won their first conference title in a women's sport since 1997 and will host next week's SLIAC Tournament.
Eureka's league title is the College's first in a women's sport since the Red Devils won the 1997 regular-season Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference volleyball crown. The 2016-17 championship is Eureka's sixth in women's basketball history. The Red Devils won five Prairie College Conference championships in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1991 while competing as a dual member of NAIA and NCAA Division III.
The 99 points scored by the Red Devils were Eureka's most in a SLIAC game since joining the league prior to the 2006-07 season. It also marked the most points scored in 29 previous meetings with Westminster dating back to the 1995-96 season.
All five Eureka starters scored at least 10 points for the first time since Jan. 20, 2016 at Greenville. Hayley Reneau led EC with 18 points and made four 3-point field goals to improve her season total to 56, tying Kara Smith (1989-90) for fifth place on Eureka's single-season list.
Kerrigan Dura scored 13, while Michaela Balducci and Kennedy Dura chipped in with 12 apiece. Lexi Dooley added 10 and Luci Weis came off the bench for 13 points. Kerrigan Dura had seven assists Wednesday, bumping her season total to 116, fifth-most in single-season Eureka history.
LOOKING AHEAD TO THE TOURNAMENT
As the regular-season league champion, the Red Devils will host the four-team SLIAC Tournament scheduled to begin on Thursday, Feb. 23 at Christine Bonati Bollwinkle Arena. The three-game tournament will represent the first conference tournament games to be played at the Reagan Athletic Complex since Eureka defeated Benedictine, 70-65, in the Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference semifinals on Feb. 23, 2005.
Eureka will play as the top seed in the 8 p.m. semifinal against the loser of Saturday's regular-season finale between Webster and Fontbonne.
Second-seeded Greenville will play Thursday in the 6 p.m. semifinal against the winner of Saturday's game between Webster and Fontbonne. The two semifinal winners will play Saturday, Feb. 25 at 1 p.m. for the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.
ABOUT EUREKA
The Red Devils are 17-7 overall and 13-2 in the SLIAC. A win on Saturday would give the Red Devils at least 18 victories in a season for the first time since the 2011-12 campaign and the eighth time in program history. The single-season program record for victories is 22, set by the 1993-94 Red Devils that fell one win short of the NAIA Division II Tournament.
Eureka is well-represented among the national individual statistical leaders this season. Junior guard Kerrigan Dura ranks 24th in Division III with 116 assists. Junior guard Hayley Reneau cracks the national top-75 in multiple categories with a .392 3-point field goal percentage (43rd), 69 steals (45th) and 56 3-pointers made (65th).
As a team, EC ranks seventh in the country with 432 total assists. With at least two games remaining, the Red Devils will have a chance to break the program record for single-season assists, set by the 2004-05 team with 470. Additionally, Eureka's current team total of 95 blocked shots has tied the program's single-season record set in 1995-96 and again in 2008-09, although blocks have only been tracked since the 1992-93 campaign.
Eureka was picked to finish sixth in the SLIAC, according to a coaches' poll released before the start of the season.
ABOUT IOWA WESLEYAN
Iowa Wesleyan is 10-12 overall and 9-6 against SLIAC opponents. Since a four-game losing streak from Dec. 10 through Jan. 4, IWU has won seven of their last 11 games, including back-to-back home wins over Westminster and Fontbonne in the last seven days. The Tigers are in search of their first road win in nearly a month, having dropped trips to Greenville and Webster in February.
Senior guard Cairece Allen leads the Tigers in scoring with 13.2 points per game, one of three Tigers to score at least 10.5 points per game. Allen shoots a league-best 55 percent from 3-point range and also ranks third in overall field goal percentage at .517. She collects 7.8 rebounds per game, second-most in the SLIAC.
Darby Massner, a sophomore guard, adds 10.6 points per game. She averages 38.5 minutes per contest. Senior guard Jaimie Hurt averages 10.5 points per game and has made a league-best 110 free throws this season.
The Tigers do a solid job getting to the free throw line, leading the nine-team SLIAC with 15.8 makes and 22.3 attempts per game. Despite those numbers, IWU scores only 58.2 points per game, seventh-most in the league.
The Tigers are ineligible for the NCAA and SLIAC postseasons due to their provisional status as a member of Division III. The 2016-17 season is IWU's final provisional season as its completes its transition from NAIA to NCAA Division III.
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.
Ruthven, Iowa native Steve Williamson is in his 13th season as head coach at Iowa Wesleyan. He ranks second all-time at in IWC women's basketball history with a .638 winning percentage and 226 career wins.
Williamson led the Tigers to six straight 20-win seasons in his first seven years at IWU, five NAIA Division II National Tournament berths, three Midwest Collegiate Conference regular season championships and four MCC Tournament titles.
A 2000 graduate of Iowa Wesleyan, Williamson was an assistant on the IWC men's basketball staff from 2000 through 2004, earning AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year honors for the 2002-03 season.
SERIES VERSUS IOWA WESLEYAN
Eureka and Iowa Wesleyan have played 16 times since 1983. The Red Devils are 10-6 in the series and 6-3 in games played at the Reagan Athletic Complex. The rivalry, dormant for more than two decades, was restored when the Tigers joined the SLIAC prior to the 2013-14 season.
After Eureka won the first SLIAC matchup on Jan. 14, 2014, IWU answered with five straight wins over the Red Devils before EC ended the streak with its win in Mount Pleasant last month.
LAST TIME VERSUS IOWA WESLEYAN
Behind a dominant second half, Eureka won its seventh straight SLIAC contest in a 64-49 victory over Iowa Wesleyan on Jan. 18 in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Kerrigan Dura put up a career-high 21 points to lead the Red Devils.
The Red Devils grabbed an early 12-7 lead less than six minutes into the game, but a 10-1 IWU run turned the tables and allowed the Tigers to have a 17-15 lead after the first quarter. The Tigers led by as many as seven points (26-19) late in the second period, but the visitors closed the half on a 7-1 burst to trail only 27-26 at halftime.
The third quarter belonged to the Red Devils. A steal and a basket from Hayley Reneau just 34 seconds into the period triggered a run of 14 unanswered points for EC, culminating with a 40-27 cushion after Michaela Balducci pushed down two foul shots with 2:51 remaining in the third quarter. The Tigers didn't score in the quarter until Cairece Allen's 3-point play at the 2:36 mark. Eureka outscored Iowa Wesleyan 21-5 in the frame.
Eureka maintained its double-digit lead for the remainder of the evening, leading by as many as 20 after Luci Weis hit a 3-pointer for a 61-41 advantage with 5:21 left.
Dura scored 21 points on a 7-for-13 effort from the field. She made five 3-point field goals, also a career best. Reneau added 17 points and Balducci netted 10. The victory, Eureka's first in Mount Pleasant since the 1991-92 season, snapped a five-game losing streak in the all-time series with the Tigers.
FOLLOW THE ACTION ONLINE
Links to a live video stream and live statistics be available at EurekaRedDevils.com and sliac.org.
The Eureka College media relations staff will provide updates throughout the game via Twitter at @EurekaGameDay.