Eagles can’t over come turnovers, loses to Snow College

Utah State Eastern men’s basketball lost to the Snow College Badgers 76-65 on the road Thursday night.
The Eagles had lots of chances against the Badgers to pull ahead and get the win but turnovers and missed free throws in the second half slowed the Eagles down.
“The second half was totally different for us, we gave them a lot of second chances for them to keep the lead,” said Utah State Eastern Head Coach Vando Becheli.
Despite having 12 turnovers in the first half the Eagles were able to keep it close throughout the first half thanks to their free throw shooting. The Eagles went 9-9 from the free throw line in the first half.
Snow’s Romain Boxus, someone who gave the Eagles problems last year, was held in check in the first half with early foul trouble. He started the game scoring the first 9 points for the Badgers but sat most of the first half.
With Boxus on the bench, Snow’s Tristan Sadler went off for 15 points in the first half to help give the Badgers a 37-29 advantage at halftime.
Sophomore Rafael Monteiro had an impressive first half for Utah State Eastern scoring nine points and grabbing six rebounds.
To begin the second half the Badgers were able to pull ahead by double-digits in front of the Eagles with freshman Jake Walker and Sadler scoring seven of Snow’s first 10 points in the first three minutes of the period.
With 5:39 left in the game, the Eagles cut the lead to four points with a big three pointer made by sophomore forward Kristupas Totoris to quiet the large Snow College crowd.
Back to back turnovers by the Eagles in the next minute turned into Snow taking the lead by 10 points.
The Eagles were unable to come back in the last few minutes of the game to give them their second conference loss of the season.
After the game Coach Becheli said that the loss came down to three things.
“We gave them second chances, we didn’t shoot well from the free throw line and we turned the ball over way too many times. They were playing at home and they had the advantage especially when we turned the ball over,” said Becheli.
Sophomore guard Neema Namdar said after the game that his team was ready to play but just couldn’t get the shots to fall.
“Some nights we are not going to hit every shot and break records, we were focusing on not worrying about that, some nights you will make shots and some you won’t. The most important thing is we have to play defense and make our free throws while not making turnovers, that is something we can do every night.” said Namdar.
Monteiro led the Eagles in scoring with 19 points while picking up 8 rebounds. Totoris was second on the team in scoring on Thursday with 15 points.
The Eagles will take on the Badgers two more times this regular season, at home on February 8 and again in Ephraim on February 24.
The road trip continues for the Eagles this weekend with a trip against a strong College of Southern Idaho team on Saturday night.
Tipoff for Saturday’s game against CSI is schedule for 5 p.m. in Twin Falls.
Cutline: USU Eastern men’s basketball stands for the national anthem before tipoff against Snow on Thursday night.