Eagles Look for Reset Button After 4-Game Skid

ANKENY, Iowa—The Faith Eagles tipped off their annual Faith Christmas Classic with festive music and an "Ugly Christmas Sweater Night" theme on Friday, looking to end a two-game losing streak. Unfortunately for the Eagles, the results for both Friday and Saturday (like the sweaters) were not pretty.

Both of the teams on Faith's schedule for the weekend (Trinity Bible College and Maranatha Baptist University) were teams the Eagles had already defeated in the first few weeks of the season, which may have been a bad thing as both were looking for revenge.

The first half of Friday night's game against Trinity was a near replica of their meeting on November 21. In the first meeting, the Eagles faced a large halftime deficit (55-37), but were able to rally for a two-point comeback win. This time, facing a similar deficit (58-33), Faith was not able to mount a second half comeback. Trinity used a red-hot shooting first half (56.1%; 8 of 17 from three-point range) to build its lead. Faith was 11 points better than Trinity in the second half, but the deficit was too great to overcome as they fell by the score of 90-76.

The Eagles shot just 39% for the game and were 7 of 28 from beyond the arc. Kalab Sidlinger led the team in scoring with 19 points, and Jason Conable had his finest game of the season with 12 points and six assists.

On Saturday, the Eagles hit rock-bottom against Maranatha, scoring a season-low 54 points, shooting a dismal 25.8% for the game. Faith was 4-24 from three-point range and had just four assists as a team for the game. The Sabercats, on the other hand, were red-hot, connecting on 15 of 30 three-point shots as they broke a 12-12 tie and blitzed the Eagles 18-3 over a seven-minute stretch midway through the first half and never looked back.

With the losses this weekend, the Eagles have now lost four straight as they head into a long Christmas break. After a thrilling 3-0 start, the Eagles look to hit the reset button as they enjoy some extra time off. Faith's next game is nearly a month away on January 8 as they hit the road for three road games in five days to kick off the New Year.