Eagles overcome Spoon River for win
By JJ Ossola
IV Leader Sports Editor, Dec. 9, 2004
The IVCC men’s basketball team played a strong game against rival Spoon River, attacking the basket relentlessly in the final minutes and breaking down the defense for their second win of the year.
The Eagles beat the Crusaders by 9 points on Nov. 30 making the final score 83-74.
The last time these two teams met, Spoon River got the win over the Eagles resulting in a 7-2 record. In addition, Spoon River had also beaten the No. 1 ranked Division I school, Carl Sandberg College.
Despite strong performances by Crusader players Shawn Bridgewater and Wes Emberton, who combined for 42 of the teams 74 points, the Eagles were able to get the win in the final minutes of the second half.
Head coach Mike Riley said that since the last time the two teams had met, at the Spoon River Classic through Nov. 19-20, he has changed the offense to a 3 guard and 2 post player rotation.
“This works well for breaking down defenses, forcing them to spread the floor, but makes it harder to get rebounds,” he said. “We are going to have to work harder on boxing out to get them.”
“In the second half of the game, we were able to dictate the tempo of the game. It looked like they were getting tired, so we ran the ball more and attacked the basket.”
Coach Riley said, “Playing teams of this caliber helps develop these men into better players and helps them find out what level they can play at. The quality of our schedule helps get these players recruited.”
Elton Barry led the Eagles with 24 points and 6 rebounds with Cordell Liggins getting 23 points and 5 rebounds. Marcus Jenkins chipped in 16 points, 3 assists, and 2 steals. Guard Eric Heider lead the charge on defense with 5 steals while finishing the game with 6 points.
The Eagles had 31 points off the bench and were 6 out of 11 from behind the 3 point line.