Following the Conference Tournament, the Eagles did not take a break as the traveled to Eureka College for a game that had been rescheduled earlier in the semester.
The Emmaus Eagles made the long trek down to Missouri over the weekend for a set of Conference games against Ozark Christian College and Calvary University.
Basketball season is officially upon us as the Emmaus Eagles Men’s team began their season this past weekend. The Eagles made the seven hour trip over to York, Nebraska to challenge the York College Panthers, who are NCCAA D2/NAIA opponents.
The 2017-18 men’s basketball season was an exciting one at Emmaus Bible College with a new coach and large class of freshmen to go along with some talented returning players. Each season is a journey with lots of twists and turns, but when you start off with a new coach and a new system there are sure to be additional challenges along the way. Coach Steve Edmondson and assistant John Walker worked hard to learn how best to work with the players they inherited and find a system of play that best suited their talents.
A bright spot for the Eagles was the post play of freshman Caleb Williams who scored 10 points on 5-9 shooting. The Eagles were led in scoring by senior Matt Tomlinson who was the only Emmaus player other than Williams to shoot 50% or make it into double figures in scoring. Tomlinson was 3 of 6 from behind the arc and 4 of 8 from the field overall.
Coach Steve Edmondson said, “This was a good game to help our guys regain some confidence coming off a tough loss at Judson. I was very pleased with the unselfish of our team as reflected in the assist totals. I was also very pleased with the way our guys stayed disciplined in their play despite having such a big lead. We used the second half to work on getting better at different aspects of the game. It was fun to have so many guys have a chance to contribute tonight.”
“St. Ambrose proved to be a very good team that really shot the ball well and effectively used their size advantage to dominate on the glass tonight. We were a little shorthanded tonight with a couple of our bigger guys out, but those things are going to happen and you have to learn how to overcome such things. We’ll learn from tonight’s game and grow as a team.
The Eagles started slowly and the Cardinals capitalized by jumping out to a 45-21 halftime lead. Matthew Tomlinson hit three shots from deep to lead the Eagles in scoring at the break with 9 points while Nathan Davidson collected 5 rebounds to lead the Eagles in that department.
Matthew Tomlinson continued to shoot well from behind the arc as he made 4 long range shots and had 15 points to lead the Eagles at the break. The Eagles battled hard on the boards as both teams had 20 rebounds.
Matthew Tomlinson had 5 three pointers all in the final 4 minutes and finished with 17 points. Caleb Postma added 13 points while Reeves had 12 rebounds to match his 12 points. Both Horan and Cody Cunard scored 11 each.
The first half was a tightly contested game with the halftime score being 41-37. Steven Horan led the Eagles with 13 points and 6 rebounds while Nathaniel Glidewell added 7 first half rebounds as well.
Steven Horan led the Eagles with 18 points while Tomlinson finished the day with 14 points, including two more three point baskets in the second half. Nathaniel Glidewell also finished in double figures with 12 points and Elijah Reeves contributed 9 rebounds.
Three players for the Eagles reached double figures: Horan led the way with 22 points and 4 steals, Elijah Reeves had 16 points and Nathaniel Glidewell contributed 14 points and seven rebounds.
The second half saw the Eagles make a charge late in the game to cut the Faith lead to six points after hitting some three point shots. Unfortunately, Emmaus couldn’t quite finish the comeback and Faith would hold onto the lead and win by a score of 72-58.
The second half saw the Eagles shooting percentage cool off and St. Louis make a serious run to cut into the lead. What was once around a 24 point lead, had shrunk to 8 points. Thankfully, the Eagles hit enough shots to hold off St. Louis and pull out a 101-82 victory.
Steven Horan, only had 4 shots in the half but still managed to score 10 points and add 5 assists to lead the Eagles into a halftime advantage of 39-34. The Eagles had to be pleased with their shooting as well as they were hitting at 45% clip.
Two players scored in double figures for the Eagles, Steve Horan and Nathan Davidson. Horan led the Eagles with 12 points while Davidson only missed one shot in scoring 10 points. Next up for the Eagles is its old rival Moody.
Horan finished with 31 big time points and Glidewell added 19 as the Eagles improved to 8-18 on the year. Next up for the Eagles is a trip to St. Louis as they battle St. Louis Christian and CCCB. Go Eagles.
The shot was on its way. The horn went off. Time stood still. The ball then found the bottom of the net and the Eagles had pulled off an exciting comeback. Congrats to both teams who played their hearts out. It’s a shame there has to be only one winner in the standings in games like that.
With the game tied and 32 seconds on the clock, the Eagles had the ball and let the clock go down to 10 seconds before calling a timeout. Steven Horan then drained a three pointer that gave the Eagles a three point lead with around 3 seconds on the clock. Calvary failed to score however and the Eagles had escaped with another exciting victory, improving their conference record to 2-3.
The Eagles got the ball to Horan with time running out, the Eagles down by one. Instead of shooting his trademark jumpshot, Horan decided to drive to the goal. Three……..two……one…….Horan got the left handed layup out of his hands and off the glass. The ball bounced around the rim……the horn went off……the ball somehow fell out. The game was over and Dayspring had prevailed 83-82. Exciting finish again but just a tad short.