| Stephen Franklin show Ds up in a game earlier this season. The Golden Eagles have locked up third place heading into tournament play. |
The Eagles didn’t need to win. They weren’t really expected to win. But to the surprise of SLCC, they did just that on Friday, edging out their opponents bythree for a 57-54 win.
SLCC didn’t let it happen twice as they came back on Saturday and posted a 84-53 win over the upstart Eagles.
Defense was the name of the game Friday night. CEU managed 20 points while holding a normally hot shooting Salt Lake squad to only 15 points.
In the second half of play the scoring heated up and SLCC even outscored CEU by a pair. But it was the Eagles who held on for the win.
It was Kal Bay who led the Eagles with 16. Stephen Franklin had 10. Darington Hobson pulled in nine rebounds.
It was a different story on Saturday as the hometown boys took it to the visiting Eagles.
SLCC pulled away with a 22 point margin by the half to make sure the players were not going to let CEU upset them a second time.
The lead widened in the second half of play and, in the end, CEU was staring at a 31 point loss.
Colby Vranes stepped up for the Eagles with 16, while Rafael Moreirea and Bay each scored 13. Caspari pulled in five rebounds.
Cold shooting doomed CEU on Saturday as the hit only 38 percent from the field.
The good news is that CEU moved the team’s conference record to 8-7 on the season. That earned the Eagles the right to face 1-14 CNCC in the first round of the SWAC tournament at Southern Idaho on Thursday.
Game time is 2 p.m.
If the Eagles are successful, CEU will get to have a rematch with SLCC on Friday at 2 p.m.