Eagles Take Third at MCCC Tournament

DUBUQUE, Iowa—Another conference tournament is in the books and the Faith Eagles came home with a third place finish this weekend, finishing strong with a hard-fought overtime win over Central Christian College of the Bible, 79-72.

The Eagles wound up in the consolation bracket after another tough loss to Manhattan Christian College, who defeated Barclay College on Saturday night to take home the conference tournament crown. Manhattan Christian was playing on raw emotion this week after a tragic accident took the life of one of its assistant coaches.

Playing their third game in three days, both Faith and Central Christian College struggled to find the basket in the consolation game, with Faith connecting on just 41% of its shots, while CCC connected on just 39% of its shots.

After a 32-32 tie with just two minutes left in the first half, CCC closed on an 8-0 run to put the Eagles behind the eight ball going into the locker room.

It was an uphill battle for Faith the entire second half. A Jared Pearson jumper with 7:18 to play finally tied the game for the Eagles, but they were not able to take the lead the entire second half. With a minute to play, and trailing by three, Kalab Sidlinger missed a three point try to tie it, but Carson Odle fought for an offensive rebound and got it back to Sidlinger who made a three pointer to tie the game with just 14 seconds remaining. CCC missed a three point try with two seconds remaining and the game went to overtime.

Faith took the lead on a Noah Boyer free throw 30 seconds into the overtime, and the Eagles never trailed again. Boyer posted a double-double with 17 points and 16 rebounds.

The Eagles now enter the regional tournament where they will be the number two seed in the north region, which Faith will be hosting, Thursday through Saturday. Faith faces the number seven seed, Emmaus at 8:25 p.m. on Thursday, February 25 in Ankeny.