| CEU’s Chris Lang (2) attempts to block a shot by NIC’s Don Deshazer during Friday nights game. |
CEU’s men’s basketball team went 1-1 last weekend beating the North Idaho College Cardinals 83-72 Friday, and losing to them 72-79 on Saturday.
Freshman Jamaal Smith led the team in scoring on Friday with 21 points, hitting five of 11 field goals and shooting nine for nine from the line. Tate Sorensen led with eight rebounds and made two blocks, while Chris Lang made five steals, five assists and seven rebounds. Luke Hendrix also had five steals.
Team scoring leader Eldridge Henderson remained on the injured list Friday and Saturday and returned to play in a non-conference game against Western Wyoming Tuesday.
Darin Nagle led the Cardinals Friday with 13 points, shooting 41 percent from the court. Don Deshazer made 10 rebounds and one assist.
After a close game the night before, Saturday’s game was up for grabs. Down by 20 points at the half, CEU narrowed the lead to six points with 26 seconds on the clock. Hoping to make a quick basket and draw the foul, the Eagles finished the game by giving up another point to lose by seven.
Smith scored 22 points, again making five field goals, shooting 100 percent from the line and making two steals. Tyler Billings also made a good showing with 13 points and one block. Lang and John Rogers each made three assists and two steals. Sorensen rebounded nine times and made two blocks.
The Cardinal’s Deshazer scored 18 points, shooting 70 percent from the line and making five of 12 field goals. Foluke Tobin led his team in rebounding with eight total rebounds and made seven of nine from the line. Keelan Donald made five assists and two steals.
“Last year we found out that throughout the conference the road team had a 60 percent chance of getting the split on these back-to-back games. The home team would win on Friday and lose on Saturday,” explained Zollinger.
He said the home team often lost their advantage with the second game. After a win, the home team would go into a game confident of an easy win.
“The guests would return determined not to get swept. So they come back with a little more focus the second night,” said Zollinger.
With only three sophomores on the roster, the team didn’t have the right mentality going into the weekend, said Zollinger, who felt he didn’t explain adequately to the team’s freshmen the state of mind required to win both games in a weekend.
The set against NIC was the first of nine weekends of back-to-back games.