For Immediate Release

river forest, illinois

January 3, 2007

Eureka winning streak halted by Dominican 74-65

Not even 18 points and 13 rebounds in the second half from Eureka College senior Chris Tarpley (Pekin, Ill./HS) could help the Red Devils (5-3) overcome a cold shooting first half in a 74-65 road loss to Dominican University (5-5) in non-conference men's basketball action.

Eureka benefitting from a pre-game technical foul on Dominican and led 7-4 early before the Stars scored the next 13 points capped by back-to-back three-pointers by Jose Garcia. The Red Devils, who were playing their first game in 25 days, displayed some acurate three-point shooting of their own later in the half as Michael Zasada (McHenry, Ill./HS), Matt McComb (Fairview, Ill./Spoon River Valley) and Mark Darnall (Lake Mills, Wis./HS) all hit treys during a 13-2 run that cut Dominican's lead to 23-22 with 5:40 left in the half.

However, the Stars quickly came back with a 14-3 spurt to close the half ahead 37-25 as turnovers and cold shooting destroyed the Red Devils chances to stay close. Eureka made 8-of-27 field goal attempts (30 percent) and committed 13 turnovers in the first half.

After being saddled with two fouls in five first half minutes without a shot attempt, Tarpley teamed up with Zasada to score 17 of Eureka's 20 points in the first 10 minutes after halftime. A Tarpley trey again cut Dominican's lead to one at 46-45. But just as they did in the first half, the Stars refused to relinquish the lead and went on an 18-6 run to go ahead 62-51 with 4:38 remaining. The Red Devils could not get closer than seven the rest of the way, eventually falling by nine.

Zasada scored a season-high 11 points off the EC bench, with nine coming in the second half. All of Tarpley's 18 points came after halftime on 7-of-11 from the field. A.J. Richard (Gibson City, Ill./GCMS) recorded nine points and four blocks. McComb also had nine for EC. Eureka had just three turnovers in the second half.

Mike Haiduc led Dominican with 11 boards and four blocks while chipping in 15 points. Garcia scored a game-high 19 and was 4-of-8 from long range. The Stars out-shot the Red Devils 43 percent (26-60) to 37 percent (23-63) and enjoyed a 22-10 edge in points off turnovers.

Eureka's next 16 games will be against conference opponents starting Saturday, January 6 at 3:00 pm versus Maryville University. The women's game between the same two schools begins at
1:00 pm.

###

For More Information Contact:

Brian Sullivan

Sports Information Director

Eureka College

300 E. College Avenue

Eureka, Illinois 61530

309-467-6456

bsullivan@eureka.edu