Eagles Overcome by Bears, Thunder to Open Second Semester

Ankeny IA - The Eagles took to the court this past weekend after three weeks off, opening their second semester with two big games against conference foes Barclay College (Friday) and Manhattan Christian (Saturday). Both Barclay and Manhattan were ready to play, while the Eagles struggled to maintain momentum, dropping both contests and falling to 1-2 in the conference and 3-7 overall.

On Friday, the 1st half was all Bears as they jumped out to a 15-2 lead with a made 3-pointer with 13 minutes remaining. The Eagles woke up and went on a 25-15 run to cut the Bears lead to 3 with a jump shot from James Busenitz with 5 minutes left in the half. The Bears responded with a 22-6 of their own to push their lead to 52-33 going into halftime. The large deficit coming out of halftime proved to be too much for the Eagles to overcome as the Bears handed the Eagles their 1st MCCC loss of the season 91-69. 

On Saturday, the Eagles took on defending conference champion and national runner-up Manhattan Christian College. The last time the Eagles faced the Thunder was in the conference championship last February. Unfortunately, like the night before, the Eagles started the game off slowly as the Thunder jumped out to a 7-0 lead. The Eagles responded and went on a 25-18 run of their own, knotting the game at 25 apiece with 5 minutes remaining in the half. However, the last 5 minutes of the second half was again a problem for the Eagles, as the Thunder outscored the Eagles 18-1 and went into halftime leading the Eagles 43-26. Faith couldn't get close in the second half, eventually falling by a final of 56-86.

The Eagles hit the road next weekend for conference games at Calvary University (Kansas City, MO) on Friday at 6pm CST and at Ozark Christian (Joplin, MO) on Saturday at 3:00 PM.