Red Devils Confident Heading into SLIAC Tournament
EUREKA – This winter, the Eureka women's basketball team saved its best basketball for the very end of the season.
The Red Devils are heading into the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament feeling good about where they are.
"We are scoring," third-year EC coach Jaylyn Stewart said. "Our defense is clicking, and we're playing with a little bit of swag and confidence right now that we've been looking for all season."
On Tuesday at 7 p.m., sixth-seeded Eureka (8-17, 5-9 SLIAC) will take on third-seeded Westminster (16-9, 10-4 SLIAC) in a SLIAC Tournament quarterfinals matchup on the road.
Less than a week ago, the maroon and gold were looking to stop a three-game losing streak with a big Senior Night performance. The Red Devils delivered, putting their foot on the gas from the beginning to end in an 84-66 triumph over a Principia team that previously beat them by 18 points earlier in the season.
The win gave the team a timely boost, but it still needed to come out on top at Spalding on Saturday to secure a SLIAC Tournament berth. Once again, Eureka came through, pulling away in the second half for a 75-52 victory.
Over the past eight quarters, the Red Devils have outscored their opponents 159-118 while shooting 41.7 percent from the field and 77 percent from the free-throw line. Crucially, the team has posted 23.5 points per game in the third quarter alone.
"We have talked a lot about putting four quarters together, particularly the third quarter, which has been kind of an Achilles heel for us," Stewart said. "In our last two games, we've come out with 20-plus points in the third quarter, which has kind of separated us from our opponent in those games."
Eureka has also drastically cut down on turnovers, averaging 14 turnovers last week compared to 20.4 per game on the season.
Senior and leading scorer Sydney Hannam has continued to be a potent offensive threat for the Red Devils. She averaged 18.5 points while shooting 50 percent from the field and making 11 of 12 free-throw attempts last week, and is ranked second in the SLIAC with 19.3 points per game.
Senior point guard Shakaya Rogers had a strong week as well, scoring 15 points in each win while averaging 8.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. She notched her third career double-double against Spalding on Saturday and ranks fifth in the league in field-goal percentage at 48.6 percent.
Fellow seniors Abby Stotler, Madi Jernigan and Savanah Moore have continued to stay steady as well. Stotler is the team's second-leading scorer with 10.5 points per game, Jernigan contributed five assists, 4.5 rebounds and 9.5 points on the week, and Moore gathered a career-high 12 rebounds at Spalding.
Westminster is also coming into the tournament following a pair of big wins. The Blue Jays got one back from a Fontbonne team that beat them by six on the road earlier in the season on Wednesday. Then, on Saturday, they became only the second team in the conference to knock off No. 1 seed Webster in a 79-69 victory.
The Blue Jays rank fourth in the league in scoring with 70 points per game while shooting 37.7 percent from the field (fourth), 27.8 percent from distance (fourth) and 72.4 percent from the free-throw line (second). The team is second in the SLIAC in rebounding with 42.2 boards per game.
Sophomore Annettee Ramirez is the only player in the SLIAC who has scored more points than Hannam. She is averaging a league-leading 19.7 points per game while shooting 42.3 percent from the floor and contributing 5.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists.
Junior Shelby Kurtz follows Ramirez with 11.1 points per game and leads the team in rebounding with 5.9 boards per game. Ramirez and Kurtz both contributed 18 points in the last showdown with Eureka.
The third-seeded Blue Jays have won six of their past seven games, and they managed to sweep the Red Devils in the regular season with a pair of wins by an average of five points.
In the last matchup between the teams, Eureka controlled the game in the first half and led by four points at halftime, but the Blue Jays surged past the home team in the third quarter and won 68-61.
The team's first meeting came down to the wire. The game was tied with 46 seconds to go, but a late block foul called on Hannam turned the tide against the Red Devils. Westminster was able to get the edge at the line and win it, 72-69.
"We've battled with Westmin in the last two meetings," Stewart said. 'We match up with them well, and we look forward to going down there to compete."