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For Immediate Releaseeureka, illinois
Beecher, Zasada control paint for Eureka in 16-point victory
CARLINVILLE, Ill. — The Eureka College men's basketball team used a pair of career-highs to cruise past Blackburn College, 69-53, on the road Wednesday night. Chris Beecher (Dixon, Ill./HS) provided the offense with a career-best 14 points on 7-for-9 shooting and Michael Zasada (McHenry, Ill./HS) took care of the dirty work with 18 rebounds to set a new career-high in that department.
The Red Devils (7-12, 7-4 SLIAC) trailed just once in the game as Blackburn (3-15, 1-10) got off to a 5-3 lead. Eureka then ran off 17 of the next 21 points and never looked back.
The Red Devils' largest lead of the opening frame came at halftime with the count at 35-20. Beecher and Matt McComb (Fairview, Ill./Spoon River Valley) each tallied 10 points before the half ended as EC shot a sparkling 52 percent (15-for-29), while holding Blackburn to a 29 percent (8-for-28) clip.
Eureka gained just a 34-33 scoring edge in the second half, though Blackburn never got closer than 13 points the rest of the way. The real back-breaking shots came from the hand of Brady Wildenradt (Delavan, Ill./HS) near the midpoint of the half. Blackburn's Blake Doehring twice trimmed the Eureka lead to 13 with three-pointers on back-to-back possessions only to see Wildenradt answer with a triple of his own on the other end both times.
Zasada soon added another trey during a quick 9-0 Eureka spurt that brought the lead up to 59-37, essentially putting the game on ice. Blackburn fought hard on the boards, but managed just a 31.8 percentage from both the field (21-for-66) and three-point territory (7-for-22).
McComb led four Red Devils in double figures with 16 points. Mark Darnall (Lake Mills, Wis./HS) matched Wildenradt with 10 points. Zasada had nine points to go with his 18 rebounds, which included 15 on the defensive end. His previous career-high was 17 set earlier this season. The Red Devils shot 49 percent (28-for-59) overall to win their fourth game in five tries.
Ryan Smith had 16 points and nine boards to lead Blackburn, which had won two out of their last three home games. There were a total of only 22 fouls and 17 free throws shot in the swiftly played contest.
Eureka moved into sole possession of fourth place in the conference standings on the night with five league games remaining. Next up is Fontbonne University Saturday, Feb. 9 at 1:00 pm. The Griffins took an 81-63 decision in Eureka on January 9.
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For More Information Contact:
Bryan Moore
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