After hot start, team stalls

This archived article was written by: Kris Sanford & Jordon Cunningham

Despite their 14-2 pre-season, and the 2-0 conference start, the Eagles are on a three-game losing streak and don’t seem to have the same chemistry that they did at the start of the season.
In the first conference game on Dec. 11, 2010 against Colorado Northwestern. The Golden Eagles came out with an easy 90 – 67 victory. Brady Hurst had a double-double scoring 27 points and 14 rebounds. Jonathan Mills also had a double-double with 20 points and 14 rebounds. Trevor Bamgartner had 17 points going seven for eight in field goals and three for four from behind the arc.
Following their first conference victory before the break, USU-CEU easily handled Snow College 106-79. Hurst and Cameron Evans both played well, scoring in the double figures against their former team. Evens and Hurst both played their freshman season at Snow. Hurst led the Eagles with 19 points and James Kinney followed with 15 points and five assists. The scoring was spread out evenly with six players in the double figures.
The trend shifted the next night when the Eagle’s were defeated by Salt Lake Community College 76-84. Max Zakharov scored 17 points and Bryant Crowder came down with seven rebounds.
The game went back and forth until the last minutes when head coach Brad Barton received his second technical foul and was ejected from the game. Following his ejection a quick eight points were scored by the Bruins to put the game away.
Coach Barton said there were many variables to why they lost but one of them was the uneven amount of fouls called by an individual official. Out of 30 fouls called, 22 were against the Eagles.
Due to Coach Barton’s ejection, he was automatically suspended for the following game against North Idaho College. A nervous assistant coach Chris Skinkis, filled the role of head coach for the first time in his career.
Unfortunately the Eagles were defeated 52-85. Evans lead the team with 13 points, Crowder was a close second pulling in 12 points, and Mills had 12 rebounds. Other than that the Eagles didn’t do much in the 33-point loss.
Following the hard loss against North Idaho, USU-CEU lost for the third straight time against the College of Southern Idaho, 80-89. Evans led the team once again with 15 points. Hurst had 12 rebounds; Mills had eight rebounds and eight points. Crowder went six for nine, and ended with 13 points. The Eagles lead 35-38 at the end of the first half but were out scored 54-42 in the second.
In order to get the teams mojo back Coach Barton plans to weed out the cowards by having a tough week of practice, specifically working on rebounding, and defense. Barton also stated that every game they have out-rebounded their opponents they have won. He says that he all he can hope for is that when the players leave USU-CEU, they will leave as better men then when they got here.
CSI is ranked number one in the conference with a four and one record. SLCC follows CSI with the same four and one record. Snow sits in third at three and two, and USU-CEU is in fifth place with a record of two and three. The next game is on Friday, January 21, against Colorado Northwestern Community College at home.
Ealier this season, the Eagles dominated the Spartans in Colorado. CNCC usually are the cellar dwellers of the conference. Next weekend Eastern plays a non-conference game against Western Wyoming on Tuesday, Jan. 25, at home in the BDAC. They meet SLCC in Salt Lake City on Friday, Jan. 29, and Snow College in Ephraim on Saturday, Jan. 30, in the second round of conference play.