Men’s basketball need more preseason wins
The Eagles wanted to get back on track after three losses and a five-and-six record in non-conference play. After winning three straight, including their first home game of the year, they dropped a close one to Western Wyoming Tuesday night.
Dodge City Tourney
Two wins came in the Dodge City Tourney in Kansas versus Lamar Community College and Dodge City Community College. CEU kept a high shooting percentage in the three wins and won all the games with a combined total of 32 points. Then they traveled to Colorado and played a totally different type of ball dropping both games.
This archived article was written by: Riley Spears
The Eagles wanted to get back on track after three losses and a five-and-six record in non-conference play. After winning three straight, including their first home game of the year, they dropped a close one to Western Wyoming Tuesday night.
Dodge City Tourney
Two wins came in the Dodge City Tourney in Kansas versus Lamar Community College and Dodge City Community College. CEU kept a high shooting percentage in the three wins and won all the games with a combined total of 32 points. Then they traveled to Colorado and played a totally different type of ball dropping both games.
In the first game against the Lamar Community College Runnin’ Lopes, the Eagles started strong scoring 40 points in the first half and shooting an amazing 60 percent from the field and hitting four of eight from behind the three-point line. CEU also played great defense holding Lamar to only 26 points and a terrible 33 percent from the field.
The men kept it up in the second half scoring 36 points on a still impressive 41 percent from the field. What gave the Eagles extra help was the shooting from the free-throw line hitting 13 of 19. The defense was not as good in the second for CEU they let Lamar out score them in the second half by scoring 38 points.
The huge difference in the game was points from the bench CEU out scored the Runnin’ Lopes an outstanding 34-8 showing how dedicated the Eagles really are. The leading scorer in the game was Kal Bay with 16 points and 6 of 10 from the field. Behind him was the big man down low for the Eagles Felix Casperi also in double digits with 13 points but also had 14 boards getting him another double double.
Also scoring for CEU was Leon Sutton with six points and six assists, Colby Vranes with three, Aaron England with eight; six of which was from three point land, David Pugmire also had six. Stephan Franklin had seven, Rafael Moreira had eight and Steve Goodell joined the scoring frenzy with nine. CEU showed they can play defense in this game and also that they can put points on the board and everyone can contribute. “I feel like we’re really starting to come together as a team,” aid Coach Chris Craig.
The next day CEU played the tourney host in the Dodge City Community College Conquistadors. CEU came out right where they left off the day before, scoring 32 in the first half on 50-percent shooting.
They again played solid defense holding Dodge City to only 25 points on 10 of 27 shooting. In the first half CEU shot 71 percent from behind the three-point line and only 50 percent from the free throw line. In the second half, CEU kept up the high shooting percentage by shooting 51 percent from the field and scoring 40 points. Dodge City kept up with CEU in the second half by scoring 38 points and shooting a 57 percent from the field. Again CEU’s bench came up huge by scoring 40 points in the game helping the Eagles to the 72-63 win.
CEU out rebounded Dodge City 34 to 22 in the game most came by Darington Hobson with nine and Stephan Franklin with eight. Three-point shooting was big in the game with the Eagles hitting eight of 14. Top scorer in the game for the Eagles was Felix Casperi with 22 on eight of 11 shooting and six of 10 from the charity stripe. Hobson also had a great game with 19 points and nine boards. Also scoring for CEU was Sutton and Vranes with three, England with six Bay with double digits with 16, Franklin with one but had nine dimes and eight boards, Goodell also had two more for the Eagles. “Colby Vranes really stepped up for us, maybe not for points, but he will always do what it takes to win no matter what it its,” said Coach Craig.
Laramie Golden Eagles
CEU finally got its home game they and everyone was waiting for when the Laramie Golden Eagles came into town. CEU came out playing tough defense in the first half by holding Laramie to 17 points. They went into the half, scoring 34 on 50-percent shooting. In the second half the hot shooting of the Eagles continued shooting 45 percent in the second half, and racking up 37 points getting them the win 47-71.
The team really jelled together in this game with a combined 17 assists. “They are a tough rebounding team,” says Coach Craig “We need to really hit the boards, sometimes there best offense is to throw it up and just get the offensive rebound and put it in.”
CEU did just that, out rebounding the visiting team 22-50. The main contributors were Hobson and Moreira each with 14. All the scoring was very spread out for the Eagles with every player but one scoring in the blowout.
Northeastern Colorado Tourney
After three wins CEU tried to stay on track at the Northeastern Colorado Tournament. Their first opponent at the tourney was Northeastern Plainsmen. CEU came out of the gate not shooting like they had the previous games, only scoring 23 points on 10-of-31 shooting.
Northeastern, on the other hand, didn’t do much better only shooting 37 percent from the field and racking up 35 points. CEU’s shooting from outside was terrible, only hitting two of ten. In the second half they started to shoot like they had the previous games but, unfortunately, so did Northeastern. The game ended in a 68-83 loss for CEU.
Turnovers were a huge sore spot for the Eagle’s having 23 to Northwestern’s 13. The other thing that hurt the men was the 10 of 22 from the free throw line. The leading scorer in the game was Hobson with 18 despite shooting only two for six from the line. Hobson also had 12 boards completing the double double. Also scoring in double digets was Bay and Moreira each with 12. Bay also had four assists.
The Eagles tried to get back on track after Northwest Wyoming. CEU wanted to get back their shooting that they had in the wins previous and they did that by out shooting NW 48 percent to 42 percent. Even with the higher shooting percentage, CEU went into the half down by six. In the second half CEU out played NW but the half time deficit was to much to over come.
With a final score of 70-65 CEU lost a close one. The Eagles out rebounded NW 41-28 showing how scrappy they can be. Franklin lead the scoring for the Eagles with 18 points and seven boards. Casperi also had a big game with 12 points. Vranes also had double digets with 10.
The Eagles hosted WWCC, leading most of the game on Dec. 4. and fell by 10, 95-85. Stats were not available at press time. They host the Utah All-Stars on Friday, Dec 7 at the BDAC at 7:30 p.m.
CSI is ranked second in the NJCAA Men’s Division I Basketball rankings for the third-straight week. The 10-0 Golden Eagles received 144 total points and two first place votes. CSI defeated Highline Community College (Wash.) 103-44 and previously 11th-ranked Sheridan College (Wyo.) 122-93, beating their opponents by a 35-point average margin.
