Shorthanded Men Fall to Silver Lake

The Eagle men opened their season this past Friday as they hosted Silver Lake College (Manitowoc WI). Despite being outnumbered and outsized, the Eagles put up a valiant effort but ultimately fell 83-93. Faith is 0-1 on the year with the loss.

The Eagles entered the game with just eight of their 15 roster players available. Seven men were in Florida with the Eagles soccer team which was competing in the national tournament. In addition to the short bench, Faith was outsized, as Silver Lake boasted a roster with seven players standing between 6'5" and 6'8", while the Eagles didn't have one player at that height. Despite the size differential, the Eagles were able to connect from outside and spread the Lakers defense out and get to the basket, resulting in a Faith lead of 25-22 with six minutes remaining in the first half. Unfortunately, a combination of mental errors and cold shooting over the next six minutes would result in a 17-5 run by the guest to take a nine point, 39-30 lead into the half. 

Out of the break, Silver Lake looked like they were putting the game away as they stretched the lead to 15 with 13 minutes left in the game. The Eagles had different ideas as they mounted a 13-0 run to pull within two with 10 to go in the game. Silver Lake would respond out of a timeout, pushing the lead back to 10 with a 12-2 run. Faith seemed out of gas as Silver Lake increased the lead to 17 with two miutes to play, but the Eagles Cody Chaffin wasn't done yet. Cody hit four threes, nearly all heavily contested, but Silver Lake was able to make enough free throws to hold off the Eagles run, earning the 10 point win.

Four Eagles finished in double digits. Chaffin led all scorers with 29 points. Aaron Leistikow scored his 1000th career point en route to a 19 point, three steal performance. John Acree added 13 points, while Jon Luke Talton finished with 12 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds. Willie Felderman grabbed seven rebounds as well. Despite their size disadvantage, the Eagles were only outrebounded by four total rebounds, and actually grabbed one more offensive rebound than the visitor. Unfortunately, the Eagles allowed Silver Lake to shoot 55% from the floor.

Faith had their game with Oak Hills Christian on Saturday cancelled midway through the game due to a severe injury to an Oak Hills player. Faith will return to action Tuesday against Union College at 6:30pm.