Eureka’s SLIAC Season Begins with Greenville Challenge
EUREKA – On Wednesday, Greenville comes to town, and the Eureka men's basketball team's St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference season begins with a showdown against the Panthers at 7:30 p.m. inside Christine Bonati Bollwinkle Arena and Convocation Center.
Eureka returns to its home floor with a 2-9 record, looking to turn the page from a challenging non-conference season that featured a handful of tough losses and near-triumphs. The Red Devils most recently gave NCAA Division III Maryville a run for its money on the road on New Year's Eve, and also got one back from Monmouth over the holiday break.
Against Monmouth, the Red Devils got back in the winning column in dramatic fashion, snapping a seven-game losing streak and avenging a season-opening loss against the Fighting Scots in November.
Cody Baer finished with an impressive double-double of 16 points and 18 rebounds while shooting 50 percent from the floor on the night despite dealing with foul trouble for much of the second half. Austyn Ellison followed with 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists, while Noah Persich and Logan Dorethy added 14 and 10 points, respectively.
At Maryville, the Red Devils kept it close until the Saints gained control late and pulled away for an 82-67 non-conference victory. Senior Austyn Ellison led the Red Devils with 17 points, along with three rebounds, an assist and a steal, and he was one of five EC players to reach double figures.
Charlie McKinty tied his season high with 13 points while adding four rebounds, three assists and two steals. Recent transfer Peewee Brown also added 10 points, reaching double figures for the first time as a Red Devil. Baer and Dorethy each had 10 points. Baer recorded a double-double, pulling down 12 rebounds to go with his scoring output, while Dorethy was one rebound short of a double-double, grabbing nine boards and dishing three assists.
Through 11 games, Eureka is averaging 71.5 points per game and shooting 42.2 percent from the field. During non-conference play, the Red Devils have developed considerable depth.
Baer, a junior transfer and 6-foot-10 big man, has emerged as the team's leading scorer and he is averaging a double-double of 15.3 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. He currently ranks at the top of the SLIAC in rebounds per game and is fifth in the league in scoring.
Ellison and Dorethy are right behind him in scoring, averaging 13.5 and 12.8 points per game, respectively. Dorethy is also gathering 6.8 boards per game and is tied for leading the league in free-throw percentage (92.9). Ellison is distributing a team-high 3.8 assists per game.
Since coming back from injury in December, McKinty has notched 9.8 points per game while shooting 41.7 percent from the field, and Brown has notched 9.5 points per game in his first two games in maroon and gold. Persich, meanwhile, has contributed eight points, 2.1 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game while shooting a team-high 41.9 percent from 3-point range – good for fourth in the SLIAC.
Greenville enters with a 1-10 record. The Panthers' lone win of the season was a 108-103 overtime victory at Covenant on Dec. 1. The team opened the season 0-8, and it has dropped its past two games against Wisconsin-Whitewater (124-90) and Carthage (132-106), respectively.
For newcomers: Greenville plays an unusual and highly specific brand of basketball called The System. Created by Grinnell, the goals of The System are to take 100 shots per game, shoot 50 3-pointers, grab 35 percent of the available offensive rebounds, force 32 turnovers and, most importantly, take 25 more shots than the opponent. It results in fast-paced, high-scoring games that force the opponent to withstand an unceasing full-court press.
Greenville leads NCAA Division III in scoring with 106.5 points per game and is second in the nation with 15.5 3-pointers made per game and 47.2 attempted per game. It is seventh in turnovers forced per game at 21.27.
Senior Keishun Thomas averages 18.7 points per game and 4 3-pointers while playing 20 minutes per game. Jared Johnson follows with 16 points per game, while juniors Darius Scott and Travis Dickey add 12.2 and 10.1 points, respectively. The Panthers have 15 players who log between 8 and 20 minutes per game.
