Greenville Outlasts Red Devils, 124-116
GREENVILLE, Ill. – The Eureka men's basketball team couldn't complete a St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference season series sweep over Greenville on Saturday.
The Panthers hit 21 3-pointers and outgunned the Red Devils, 124-116.
Eureka put up big numbers in a hard-fought, back-and-forth battle, but the visitors couldn't slow down Greenville in the second half.
Eureka's Cody Baer (Peoria, Ill./Dunlap/Southwester Illinois) posted a career-high 43 points and tied the SLIAC single-game rebounding record with 23 boards. The junior big man shot 16-for-26 from the field, made 11 of 11 free-throw attempts, dished five assists and had one block.
Fellow big man Logan Dorethy (Hamilton, Ill./West Hancock/Hannibal LaGrange) tallied 21 points and seven boards. Peewee Brown (Peoria, Ill./Manual/Lincoln) added 19 points, and Austyn Ellison (Hudson, Ill./Bloomington Central Catholic) notched his second career double-double with 18 points and 10 assists.
Ben Carter (Morton, Ill./Morton) contributed seven rebounds, six points and a career-high six assists in 15 minutes off the bench.
The Red Devils largely did a good job of taking care of the ball against the Greenville press. They only committed 14 turnovers against a team that is fifth in the nation in forced turnovers with 22.44 per game.
However, Eureka shot 52.4 percent from the field – not high enough to outweigh the home team's barrage of 3s.
The Red Devils trailed for most of the first half, but they seized their first lead with 6:38 remaining until halftime and managed to extend it to seven following a Baer layup on an assist by Ellison just over two minutes later. The Panthers responded with a late 12-2 run and went into halftime up five.
Midway through the second half, Eureka caught up and went back ahead of Greenville. The Panthers proceeded to tie the game with a triple by Darius Scott and regained the lead with another one by Jarred Johnson.
Eureka hung around, but it never closed the gap again. The Panthers made five 3s in the last five minutes, and the Red Devils struggled to answer on the other end.
Jarred Johnson finished with a team-high 23 points, while Kaidyn Johnson and Keishun Thomas both followed with 16. Carlos Crespo and Scott had 15 and 14 points, respectively. Crespo, Scott and Kaidyn Johnson each hit four 3-pointers.
After three straight tough road games, Eureka (5-14, 3-5 SLIAC) will return to Christine Bonati Bollwinkle Arena and Convocation Center on Wednesday to host Blackburn (7-12, 3-5 SLIAC) at 7:30 p.m.