| CEU’s 6-foot 1-inch Eldridge Henderson slams the ball through the net for the first points of Friday’s game against the Snow College Badgers less than two minutes after tip-off. Henderson had 15 points for the game. |
College of Eastern Utah’s men played the season’s last two home games this weekend, losing to Snow College 76-81 on Friday and 73-87 on Saturday.
Starting with a dunk by Eldridge Henderson less than two minutes into the game, CEU led through the first half. Returning with a two-point lead, CEU continued to return each of Snow shots well into the second half. With 1:29 on the clock, and a tie game, Snow turned the game for their favor and finished with a five-point lead.
Henderson had 15 points, three assists and a steal. Chris Lang had 15 points, two assists, and a steal. Jamaal Smith had 14 points and two assists. Tate Sorenson had 15 rebounds and seven points.
Snow’s Kasey Winters made 19 points, 11 rebounds and one assist; Ian Elseth had 15 points and nine rebounds; and Brandon Showlly had 14 points, one assist and a steal.
Snow’s Badgers, excited and ready for another win, returned ready to give CEU another loss on Saturday. With a repeat first half, CEU led 43-42.
As the half wore on, players on both teams began to play a more animated game, with two CEU players and one Snow player leaving the court with injuries, Showlly getting a technical foul, and Jamaal Smith getting ejected from the game.
As coaches tried to get players to focus on a win, Snow began to gain a lead with five minutes left in the half.
Those last five minutes, the “red zone,” as CEU Head Coach Bryan Zollinger calls it, is where the game was won.
“We missed three shots and had two turnovers in the last five possessions,” said Zollinger.
“They were more physical than we were. We weren’t patient enough,” he said, explaining that the Eagles offensive game was off. He said players were too quick to shoot, and that the team could have worked better as a team to get the ball into position for a score.
Lang led in scoring with 19 points, four assists and a steal. Smith had 11 points, as did John Rogers. The defense was led by Sorensen, Tyler Billings, and Belford Williams, each with six rebounds.
Snow’s Showlly had 21 points, and one assist while Winters had 19 points, 16 rebounds and two assists.
With just two more games left in regular season, the Eagles, now 7-9 in the conference remain ranked fourth and take a weekend off before facing the Bruins in Salt Lake City in two weeks.