Hecker's Strong Second Half Rallies Faith to Second Straight Win

KANSAS CITY, Missouri—In the span of just three days, the Eagles seem to have found an early season spark, overcoming second-half deficits to win two in a row after an impressive 91-83 road win at Spurgeon College Thursday evening.

The Eagles began the game with all the momentum, jumping to a quick 13-6 advantage, but Spurgeon rallied with a 17-8 run over the next five minutes to regain the lead. Both teams battled back and forth the remainder of the first half as Spurgeon took a one-point lead into the locker room. Faith's offense was effective in the first half, scoring 47 points on 46% shooting, including 6-of-14 from three-point distance.

Things looked bleak for the Eagles midway through the second half as Spurgeon built an 11-point lead with 11:44 to play. But just like Tuesday's game against Union College, Faith had an answer, and a rally.

"The answer" on Thursday night was Andy Hecker, a freshman from Sheldon, Wisconsin, who came off the bench to score a career-high 20 points, with 15 of those coming in the second half. Most of Hecker's heroics came in the final 10 minutes and 30 seconds. Faith's rally started with a steal and basket by Hecker at the 10:31 mark and was capped with a three-point basket by Hecker with 1:09 to play, giving the Eagles a two-point lead. Another Hecker bucket with 35 seconds to play stretched the lead from one to three, and two more free throws by the freshman wing helped ice the game with 23 seconds to play.

Points off of turnovers were a huge difference in the ballgame as Faith turned 19 Spurgeon mistakes into 29 points. Five Eagles scored in double digits, led by Jayce Goergen's 23 points. Hecker had 20, while Kalab Sidlinger and Jared Pearson added 15 apiece. Noah Boyer rounded out the double-digit scoring with 11.

Faith looks to bump their record over .500 on Saturday with a road match against Grace Christian University (5-5). The game will be played at Emmaus Bible College in Dubuque, Iowa, at 12 p.m.