Golden Eagles shooting well, look to take latest success into weekend showdown vs. NIC

This archived article was written by: Micah Iverson

The CEU men’s basketball team have won two straight Scenic West Athletic Conference games, much due to the fact that field goal percentages have been high and scoring has come from nearly every player on the roster. Coaches Bryan Zollinger, Brock Erickson, and Bob Potts have to be satisfied, but not fully on how the team has played the past two games. There record going into the weekend is three wins and three losses in SWAC play. Overall CEU has won 12 and lost just five.
The most recent win came at the hands of Colorado Northwestern Community College when they visited the BDAC this past Saturday night. CEU dominated the opening ten minutes, but the persistence of CNCC came through and by the half they had cut the lead to just four, 38-34. The Spartans of CNCC out-shot CEU in the first half and overall in the game by shooting 52.5 percent. CEU came out of halftime strong and outscored CNCC in the second half 51-39. The Golden Eagles played the game without their leading scorer in Eldridge Henderson, who sat the game out with a groin injury and most of the game without their fourth leading scorer John Rogers who left early in the game with a back injury. CEU came up with the much-needed victory 89-73 nonetheless, to push their record to .500 in the SWAC standings.
With the last two wins CEU has shot a combined 49.1 percent from the floor. Much of that has to do with the stellar play from Tyler Billings, the 6’8” freshman from Logan, Utah. In the game at North Idaho on January 8th, Billings shot 8-11 and 5-6 from the three-point arc to lead the Eagles with 25 points while pulling down seven rebounds. He followed that effort up versus CNCC with 13 points on 4-7 shooting just behind Jamaal Smith who led the Eagles with 16 points on 7-14 shooting while dishing out eight assists. CEU owes much of their success to their balanced effort. In their game versus NIC 10 different players had at least two points. Following up that effort against CNCC 11 players were in the scorebook with four men in double figures.
The Golden Eagles will be in action this Friday and Saturday against the North Idaho College Cardinals in the BDAC. The games start at 7:30 both nights and look for the same balanced offense to be deployed by the CEU coaching staff.
When asked about the game, assistant coach Erickson commented; “Because Henderson’s availability is still questionable, we have to bring it both nights.” On that note, the Eagle bench has to pick up the slack and play well both nights for CEU to be successful.
CEU has a great chance to move up in the SWAC standings with two wins this weekend. Fan support will be needed, but if you are not able to come to the BDAC, listen to the games broadcasted live on 98.3 FM KARB with your host Micah Iverson.