Red Devils Thrive Down Stretch, Best Spalding, 68-57
EUREKA – Heading into the fourth quarter against Spalding on Sunday, the Eureka women's basketball team was clinging to a five-point lead after a competitive third frame.
The Red Devils responded by finishing strong, notching a game-high 25 points in the fourth and recording a 68-57 St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory over the Golden Eagles.
It was the maroon and gold's third SLIAC win of the season and the team's second in a row this week.
Three Red Devils finished in double figures, with junior Savanah Moore (Clinton, Ill./Mt. Pulaski/MacMurray) tallying a team-high 14 points on 50 percent shooting.
Olivia Falls (Bloomington, Ill./Bloomington) followed with 11 points – 11 of which came in the fourth quarter. The senior standout shot 50 percent from the floor, made 5 of 7 free-throw attempts and pulled down a team-high nine rebounds. Before the game, she was honored for recently reaching 1,000 career points.
Junior Abby Stotler (Wyoming, Ill./Stark County/MacMurray) was the third Red Devil to shoot 50 percent and reach double figures, finishing with 10 points. Junior Sydney Hannam (Canton, Ill./Canton/Spoon River) also added 10 points, along with two rebounds, two steals and two assists.
Two Red Devils added eight points apiece. Senior point guard Marissa Murphy (Canton, Ill./Canton) came off the bench to tally eight points, eight rebounds and two steals.
Fellow senior Kennedy Jackson (Peoria, Ill./Limestone/Carl Sandburg) contributed eight points and seven rebounds.
Freshman Josie Ness (Sandwich, Ill./Sandwich) also made good use of her time on the floor, grabbing five rebounds, scoring a bucket and making a big a block in 11 minutes off the bench.
Eureka set the tone early with a strong first quarter. The Red Devils shot 43.8 percent from the field and a buzzer-beating long jumper by Stotler off a smart dish by Moore gave the team an 18-9 lead heading into the second.
Spalding trimmed the lead to three points by halftime and continued to stay close to EC in the third. The Red Devils knocked down all three of their 3-pointers in the third quarter, with Moore hitting two and Hannam making the other. A free throw by Madison Jernigan (Bartonville, Ill./Limestone/Blackburn) made it a five-point game with less than a minute left in the third.
Eureka shot a game-high 53.3 percent in the fourth quarter, opening the final frame by scoring the first five points to double the lead.
The team's biggest advantage came when Falls and Hannam scored on back-to-back fastbreaks with close to four minutes left in the game. The Red Devils held the Golden Eagles at bay the rest of the way.
The win was second-year EC coach Jaylynn Stewart's third against Spalding in four tries in the past two seasons.
On Monday, the Red Devils (7-10, 3-4 SLIAC) will look to improve to .500 in SLIAC play when they head to Principia (1-15, 0-9 SLIAC) for a 5:30 p.m.
