| Tyler Kepkay takes a three in an earlier game against the CEU all-stars. Kepkay is shooting 45 percent from beyond the arc. |
With the number one score in all of NJCAA on their team, CEU is having a good season. They lost two in Ephraim to Snow and then bounced back and grabbed a pair of wins in Northern Idaho. Snow topped CEU 77-79 and 73-93 in a pair on January 12 and 13. CEU took a pair from NIC 77-75 and 94-88 the following weekend.
The Eagles are 5-3 in SWAC play and they will be taking on 6-2 Southern Idaho to move them back into a first place tie or better.
In the pair of games with Snow, CEU found themselves behind in the first half of play on Friday Jan 12. They came back to outscore Snow in the second half of play, but not enough to erase the deficit and wound up losing by two. On Saturday the Snow offense racked up a 21 point lead before the break and sat on it the rest of the game.
Tyler Kepkay continued to show why he is ranked number one in the NJCAA. He combined for another 50 points in the two games. It is a little below his 29 plus scoring average though.
Kepkay did hit his average on Friday, Jan/ 20 as the Eagles took on NIC in a pair of games. He scored 29 on the night as CEU went on to beat the Northern Idaho squad. They found themselves up by 16 at the break. NIC out shot them by 10 points in the second half as the Eagles cooled off a bit, but it was enough for a six point victory over NIC.
On Saturday night the game stayed much closer. With the Eagles holding a slim one point edge at the break, they held on and took the game by 3. Even though NIC was shooting better than the Eagles, it was at the line that CEU had the edge. The team went 25-28 from the line while NIC was 11-16.
Kepkay had a relatively quiet night with a team high of 21 points. He was 8-8 at the line and hit 3 of 7 from outside the arc. Steve Hassell had a good weekend as well, stuffing in 26 points on Friday and adding another 10 on Saturday. He also pulled in 10 rebounds in the Friday night game.
Kepkay is now ranked first in the NJCAA scoring list. He is doing it all. Averaging over 29 points per game, he is hitting 97% from the line. He goes to the line often. Kepkay is also averaging over 45 percent from the three point line and it is common to see him with four or five threes in a game.
Kepkay and the Eagles will get a chance to show off their stuff this weekend with a showdown against conference leader CSI. The men’s games will begin at 7 p.m. at the BDAC right after the women’s games. They will play CSI on both Friday and Saturday night. These could be a preview of the games that will decide the SWAC conference championship.