| Aaron England muscles his way in for a shot earlier in the season. |
The CEU men’s team began their conference schedule on the road against Northern Idaho and left with their first win. They beat NIC 77-62 on Jan 10 to open SWAC play. They headed to Twin Falls on Jan 12, but took an 88-104 loss to go 1-1 in SWAC action.
The Eagles jumped out hard and fast in the Thursday night game against NIC. They were up 42-23 at the break. They hit a sizzling 62 percent of their field goals while holding the NIC shooting to 29 percent.
The Eagles called off a bit in the second half as NIC outscored them 35-32, but the first half lead held up and the Eagles held on to a comfortable victory.
Darington Hobson was the hot hand for the Eagles with 18. Felix Casperi added 15 and Aaron England had 13 . Hobson was a force on the defensive boards with 14 rebounds. His presence kept NIC from second chance shoots. England was hot from long range as he hit 4-6 treys on the night.
On Saturday it was Southern Idaho’s turn and they didn’t let the Eagles shut them down. The lead changed five times in the first half before CSI took control. At the break they had CEU down by 12.
CSI came out hard and at one time was up by 28 points. But the Eagles stepped up their play and tried to make a game of it. In the end, the strength of CSI was too much and CEU lost by 16.
Kal Bay muscled his way to lead the Eagles with 23 points. He hit seven 3 pointers on the night. Casperi stuffed in 13 and pulled in 16 rebounds for CEU. CEU only went to the line for 12 shots and hit 10, while CSI had 36 attempts and racked up 28 points off the free shot.
Coach Chris Craig felt like his team played their tails off in both games over the weekend. He was a little disappointed in the CSI game. “Our execution was not up to par on Saturday and we will do better next time around against CSI when we have a week to prepare.”
The Eagles were in action this last weekend at home against SLCC and Snow. The scores and stats will appear this Thursday. The team will have a home game at the B-DAC on Jan. 26, taking on Colorado Northwestern. Game time will begin after the Lady Eagles game with tip-off for the men’s game at 3 p.m. The Lady Eagles will tip off at 1 p.m.