Men stun No. 4 ranked SLCC

This archived article was written by: Brooke Anderson

The Eagles continue their season with a huge win against No. 4 nationally ranked Salt Lake Community College last weekend.
They started their first SWAC conference away games in Ephraim, Utah against Snow College and lost 76-65.
Leading offensively, Rafael Monteiro had 19 points, followed by Kristupas Totoris with 15.
“We didn’t play good defense and we didn’t execute… too many turnovers,” Neema Namdar says, who contributed 11 points and three rebounds.
Defensively, Nico Rojas and Monteiro led the team each with 8 rebounds.
Milan Surlic’ led in assists with seven.
The Eagles played in Twin Falls, Idaho, on Jan. 20 against an aggressive College of Southern Idaho. The game ended in a tough 114-77 loss for the team.
With a 38-point deficit in the first half, the Eagles had a lot of work to do the second half. The team out scored CSI in the second half 52-51.
“We came out flat and allowed a lot of second chance points,” Landon Swartz says, who had 14 points, two assists and five rebounds in the game.
Namdar led the team with 20 points.
Ognjen Pantovic led defensively with seven rebounds, trailed by Samuel Velez with six.
“We just had some lapses mentally,” Jeffrey Yan says, who led with seven assists and contributed three rebounds.
The next week, the team was more successful coasting to an 82-71 win at Colorado Northwestern Community College. The Eagles maintained a lead the whole time with a halftime score of 38-31.
Monteiro led the team with 21 points and two assists, followed by Totoris and Pantovic with 14 and 13 points.
Surlic’ led the team defensively with seven rebounds and four assists. Pantovic followed with six rebounds and an impressive five blocks.
The Eagles shot 38.9 percent behind the three-point-line, while the Spartans only shot 25 percent.
The team concluded a successful week with an 83-79 win against No. 4-Ranked Salt Lake Community College. The Eagles pulled a lead early on at a 46-33 halftime score.
“We played very well as a team, shared the ball, and executed our game plan,” Swartz says, who led the team offensively with 16 points, seven rebounds and one assist.
“We controlled the pace of the game making SLCC play at our pace instead of theirs,” says Monteiro, who led defensively with eight rebounds, and contributed 14 points and two assists.
“Last night was a team effort,” says Namdar, who added 13 points as well as two assists.
The Eagles shot really well behind the three-point-line at 32 percent, which set them apart from the Bruins, who were only successful 17.6 percent of the time.
Next week, on Feb. 3, the Eagles will face College of Southern Idaho again on their home court on Fan Appreciation night at 5p.m. in the BDAC. Follow the Team online at Utah State Eastern Athletics.