Eagles go 1-1 on Their 2nd Straight Weekend Trip to Minnesota

The Eagles were on the road Friday night as they took on the Polars from Crown College. The Polars were the defending national champions and the team that knocked the Eagles out of the region semifinals last season, so the Eagles were looking to redeem themselves. Unfortunately, Crown was looking to defend their title. The 1st half the Eagles hung around for a while and only went into half trailing 47-33. The start of the 2nd half, the Polars played more like defending national champions. The Polars went on an impressive 27-3 run in the first 5 minutes and the game was over. Crown completed their dominant performance winning the game 91-60 securing their 1st win of the season and handing the Eagle their 1st loss of the season.  

Thankfully for the Eagles, they could not hang their heads and had to turn around the next day to play the Pilots from Providence College. This game turned out to be much more exciting than the previous day.

The Pilots jumped out to an early 11-3 1st half lead as the Eagles could not seem to find an offensive rhythm. Some early substitutions for the Eagles gave them some life as they stormed back to take the lead 21-18. The Eagles took a 34-27 lead going into halftime. 

In the 2nd half, the Pilots made some defensive adjustments and changed to a zone. This gave the Eagles problems initially as the Pilots crawled back into a 36-34 lead with 17 minutes remaining. Once the Eagles settled down and made a few shots, they regained the lead with 13 minutes remaining and forced the Pilots to go back to man defense. Once the Pilots went out of their zone, the Eagles never looked back. The Eagles made the Pilots earn everything in the 2nd half as their main scoring was done from the free throw line. In the end, the Eagles defense was too much for the Pilots to handle as the Eagles took the victory 75-65.

For the Pilots, Lucas Egitto led all scorers with 19 points and Riley Paul chipped in 16 points. 

For the Eagles, this win bumps them to 3-1 on the season. Asa LaFleur, Josh Baucum, Gus Bunnell, and Mason Gorsh all scored double figures in a well rounded scoring affair with Mason Gorsh leading all scorers with 24 points (6-10 from 3). 

The Eagles look to improve their record this week as they have 4 home games including Union College on Tuesday (6PM), Maranatha Baptist University on Thursday (7PM), Kuyper College on Friday (7PM), and Trinity Bible College on Saturday (3:30PM).