East-West Edges Eureka in Overtime, 91-90
JOLIET, Ill. – The Eureka men's basketball team nearly knocked off East-West in regulation at the St. Francis Thanksgiving Classic and fell one basket short in overtime.
After tying it up at the buzzer to send the game to overtime, the Phantoms barely held off the Red Devils, 91-90.
Eureka's Logan Dorethy (Hamilton, Ill./West Hancock/Hannibal-LaGrange) finished with a team-high 25 points on 11 of 13 shooting with 10 rebounds. Cody Baer (Peoria, Ill./Dunlap/Southwestern Illinois) also had a double-double for the Red Devils, pulling down a game-high 15 rebounds and scoring 19 points.
All five Eureka starters reached double figures, with Noah Persich (Peoria, Ill./Metamora/Parkland), Austyn Ellison (Hudson, Ill./Bloomington Central Catholic) and Ben Carter (Morton, Ill./Morton tallying 15, 13 and 10 points, respectively. Ellison dished a team-high six assists and Carter added six rebounds.
Eureka was one break away from opening the tournament with an overtime victory.
The Red Devils were tied at 87-87 with less than two minutes in OT. East-West went ahead with a 3-point play by Jake Jackson with 1:44 left. On the ensuing inbound, Ellison was fouled and put away 1 of 2 at the line to make it 90-88.
After getting a stop and calling timeout, Eureka tied the game again with a bucket in the post by Cody Baer (Peoria, Ill./Dunlap/Southwestern Illinois) with less than a minute left.
Two possessions later, De'Quaniis Jackson drove to the rim with time winding down. Eureka's Andrew Gonzalez (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) and Noah Persich (Peoria, Ill./Metamora/Parkland) double-teamed him, and the referee called a foul on Gonalez.
With 2.5 seconds left, De'Quaniis Jackson made the first free throw, but missed the second. Gonzalez grabbed the rebound and Eureka called timeout. After a Gonzalez heave to Baer, the Red Devils called timeout again to set up a final play.
With 1.7 left on the clock, Ellison got it into an open Ben Carter (Morton, Ill./Morton). The shot was on target but a touch long, and bounced off the back of the rim.
Eureka stayed in striking distance throughout the game and never trailed by more than seven points in the second half. Whenever East-West threatened to pull away, the Red Devils found an answer.
Trailing by five with 1:40 left, Zach Briggs (Decatur, Ill./Decatur MacArhur/Lincoln Land) hit a long jumper from the top of the key to make it a three-point game. Then, with 54 seconds remaining, Persich drained a corner 3 to tie it up at 77-77.
Baer then delivered a block at the rim with 37 seconds left to give Eureka a chance to go-ahead.
After calling timeout, Eureka set up Baer to hit a cutting Ellison in the paint, but the pass was deflected and nearly stolen away. Before the Phantoms could recover, though, Persich retrieved it and put up the go-ahead jumper with less than 15 seconds remaining.
East-West called timeout, and after the Red Devils fouled with 6.6 seconds left, the Panthoms inbounded the ball and set up a potential game-winning 3 on the elbow by Dario Biaggi. The shot didn't go, but East-West's Devine Conley got to the board first, saved it from going out of bounds and found Troy Cobb, who put it up with a half-second left on the clock. The shot bounced off the outside of the rim, the backboard and the front of the rim before falling in and sending the game to overtime.
Jake Jackson and De'Quaniis Jackson respectively racked up 29 and 27 points for East-West.
Eureka outshot East-West from the field, 51.4 percent to 42.4 percent, but the Phantoms made 12 3s to EC's five. Eureka also narrowly outrebounded East-West, 45-43.
Saturday was Eureka's third straight loss by three points or fewer.
The Red Devils will look to end that streak on Sunday when the team wraps up the St. Francis Thanksgiving Classic against St. Francis (2-1) at 4 p.m.