Bray, Eagles Roll to Win Over Providence

For the first 16 minutes of the Eagle's regional contest with Providence University College, the Eagles and Pilots stayed neck and neck. However, the Eagles used a 13-5 run over the final three and a half minutes of the half to open up a 10 point halftime lead and would never look back, running out to a 94-69 win. Faith moves to 5-2 on the year with the win and comes away from the weekend 1-1 in regional play. 

The Eagles jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead before Providence responded with a 5-0 run to take a 5-4 lead. The game then went back and forth for the next 14 minutes, with Faith holding a 2 point 30-28 lead with three and a half minutes left. Josh Bray fueled the 13-5 run for the Eagles, hitting two 3's and scoring 8 of the thirteen points in the run to push the Eagles lead to 10. Cody Chaffin hit a bucket at the buzzer to give the Eagles the final 2 points of the 13 point run. Faith opened the second half with a 10-2 run to blow the lead up to 18 points and never looked back, cruising to the win after leading by as many as 27 during the second half.

Bray came off the bench to lead the Eagles with 38 points as the Eagles saw four men hit double figures. Bray also grabbed 4 steals for the Eagles. Cody Chaffin added 15 points for the Eagles including 3/6 from behind the arc, while Aaron Leistikow added 12. Leistikow grabbed 8 rebounds to lead Faith in that category, while both he and Chaffin handed out 4 assists. Eric Young led the Eagles in assists with 4. Ryan Kupferschmid added 11 points for Faith. 

After shooting a miserable 26% the day before, Faith was able to shoot 48% on the day, including 53% in the second half. Faith had another good day defensively, holding Providence to 37% from the floor while forcing 19 turnovers, grabbing 15 steals, and outrebounding the Pilots 48-40.

Faith returns to Minneapolis next Friday to finish off their regional tournament regular season action with defending regional champion and current #1 seed North Central University. That game will tip at 7:30 PM. Faith will then play AFLBS, also in Minneapolis, on Saturday in a 5 PM tip.