Principia Holds Off Eureka, 82-76
ELSAH, Ill. – The Eureka men's basketball team couldn't put rally past Principia on the road on Tuesday night.
The Panthers successfully held off the Red Devils in an 82-76 win at Hay Field House.
Eureka led by as many as five points in the first half and held a three-point advantage during the first five minutes of the second half.
The home team, however, took the lead with a 3-pointer by Shemarri Miles with 14:03 left and never surrendered it to the maroon and gold again.
After Principia took the lead, Eureka turned it over twice and the Panthers capitalized with a layup and a pair of free throws by Clark Davidson to make it a six-point game.
The Red Devils came back with a pair of free throws by Ben Carter (Morton, Ill./Morton) and a big 3-pointer by Austyn Ellison (Hudson, Ill./Bloomington Central Catholic) that made it a one-point game with 12:06 remaining.
The Panthers responded with a pair of layups to make it a four-point game, and every time the Red Devils got one back, Principia answered right back on the other end.
An and-one by Principia's Jaquan Adams stretched the home team's lead to nine with less than six minutes left.
A 3-pointer by Eureka's Noah Persich (Peoria, Ill./Metamora/Parkland) with less than 4 1/2 minutes made it 69-64, and after Principia's Nathan Brantingham and Peewee Brown (Peoria, Ill./Manual/Lincoln) traded buckets on the next two possessions, it was a five-point game again.
Eureka couldn't find away to close in from there.
Adams helped seal it with buckets on three straight Principia possessions, extending the lead to 11 with two minutes remaining.
A three-point play by Brown, and layups by Andrew Gonzalez (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein), Zach Briggs (Decatur, Ill./Decatur MacArthur/Lincoln Land) and Cody Baer (Peoria, Ill./Dunlap/Southwestern Illinois) brought Eureka within six, but no closer.
Brown finished with a team-high 19 points, along with six rebounds, four assists and one steal. Baer notched a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds while shooting 8-for-11 from the field. Persich notched 12, eight rebounds and two assists.
Ellison and Logan Dorethy (Hamilton, Ill./West Hancock/Hannibal LaGrange) both contributed nine points, while Gonzalez added seven. Dorethy brought down 10 rebounds.
Davidson scored a game-high 21 points on 9-for-15 shooting. Adams followed with 15, while Payton Sellers and Brantingham posted 13 and 10 points, respectively.
On Saturday at 3 p.m., Eureka (5-13, 3-4 SLIAC) will look to bounce back and complete a season series sweep of Greenville (2-15, 1-5 SLIAC) on the road. The Red Devils previously bested the Panthers 103-92 at Christine Bonati Bollwinkle Arena and Convocation Center on Jan. 4.