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For Immediate Release
Men's Basketball -- Feb. 16, 2011
Red Devils Blitz Blackburn on Senior Night, 92-73
EUREKA, Ill. – Eureka College senior guard Craig Black (Sullivan, Ill./Sullivan H.S.) poured in a career-high 21 points and senior guard Cody Myers (Ipava, Ill./V.I.T. H.S.) dished out a career-high seven assists, lifting the Red Devils to a 92-73 Senior Night drubbing of Blackburn, Wednesday night at the Reagan Center. Eureka sophomore center Mark Lessen (Delavan, Ill./Delavan H.S.) added a career-high 23 points in the win.
Eureka (3-20, 2-12 SLIAC) controlled the early going, but Blackburn (5-19, 2-13 SLIAC) was able to push in front as late as the 7:03 mark of the first half when Julian Lott’s 3-pointer gave the visitors a 20-19 advantage. The Red Devils answered with a 3-point basket from sophomore guard Jordan Fehr (Roanoke, Ill./Roanoke-Benson H.S.) on the very next possession and the Red Devils would never trail again. The Eureka first half lead swelled to as many as nine points when Myers drilled a 3-pointer in the final minute of the half to set the halftime score at 41-32 in favor of the Red Devils.
Blackburn’s Chris Williams opened the second half with a basket on the Beavers’ first possession, but Eureka promptly answered with a 10-0 run for a 51-34 lead with 17:24 left in regulation. The visitors cut their deficit down to 13 (80-67) on two foul shots from Ira Williams with 3:32 left in the contest, but Eureka went 10-for-14 from the free throw line from that point forward to put the game out of reach. Black’s basket with 1:07 remaining gave the Red Devils a 92-71 lead, their largest advantage of the night.
The Red Devils held the lead for all but 3-minutes, 4-seconds of the contest and shot 56.1 percent for the game, their best effort since shooting at a 56.9 percent clip against Principia on Nov. 30, 2010. Eureka dished out a season-high 23 assists, including a game-high seven from Myers, and matched its lowest turnover total (11) since turning the ball over only 10 times against Westminster on Jan. 8, 2011. The Red Devils held a 36-29 advantage on the glass and outscored the Beavers in the paint, 28-24.
Eureka senior Josh Wagner (Roanoke, Ill./Roanoke-Benson H.S./Carl Sandburg) scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds in his final game at the Reagan Center. In addition to his game-high 23 points, Lessen led all players with nine rebounds and swatted three blocked shots. Lessen, the SLIAC leader in blocked shots with 1.64 blocks per game, has recorded 18 blocks in his last eight games. Fehr made all three of his 3-point shots during the contest and finished with a career-high 13 points. Sophomore guard Blake Chapman (Serena, Ill./Serena H.S.) tied a career-high with six assists.
Blackburn received 19 points from Williams and another 13 points from Madison Medley. The Beavers fired 32 shots from beyond the arc, but connected only seven times for a percentage of 21.9 percent. Dakota Tucker was the third Beaver to score in double-figures with 11 points. A total of 10 Beavers played at least 12 minutes, while no Blackburn player played more than 28 minutes in the loss.
Eureka head coach Chip Wilde coached his 100th game on the Eureka sideline Wednesday night, becoming just the sixth coach in the 90-season history of the program to hit that plateau.
The Red Devils will close the 2010-11 season with a pair of road contests, first visiting SLIAC leader Westminster this Saturday at 3 p.m. in Fulton, Mo.
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For More Information Contact:
Bryan Moore
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