Eagles Basketball vs. Southeastern Illinois College (W 87–85)

After a South Region victory on Tuesday, the Eagles hosted Southeastern Illinois College for their senior night and the closing game of their 2024 regular season. After Clayton Buckley and Jack Matney were honored pregame as the only two graduating seniors on the team, the tipoff got the final regular season game underway. After a forty-minute battle, overtime was needed to determine this game. With a close call down the wire, the Eagles pulled out the 87-85 victory!
 
The Eagles opened tonight’s game on an 8-2 run that lasted the first three minutes of the game. With the Falcons having to battle back in, the Eagles tried to hold them off throughout the first half. With the Eagle lead growing as large as 10 points with 6:40 to go in the half, the Falcons were able to turn it around and grab their first lead of the game with 1:40 left in the first half. With a strong end to the half, the Falcons had a 33-30 lead over the Eagles entering the break.
 
With the first half being semi-low scoring (66 combined points), the second half was much different, with both teams shooting at a higher percentage the second half was much higher scoring (89 combined points). As the Eagles regained the lead just two minutes into the second half, they commanded the lead for 16:20 of the second half. With the lead growing up to 8 at two separate times, the Eagles seemed to be in command in the second half. After a clutch three-pointer by Paul Stickles gave the Eagles a 2-point lead with 27 seconds remaining, the Falcons came down and scored with just under 20 seconds remaining. With neither team able to pull away by the end of regulation, the Eagles were in overtime for the 2^nd time this season.
 
With the Eagles striking first in overtime, they held the lead for the entirety of the overtime period. Although the Falcons did tie the game 84-84 with 1:02 left in the game, the Eagles pulled out the overtime victory 87-85! Leading the Eagles in their overtime win was sophomore Kaiden Pack who recorded a 22-point, 7-rebound, and 7-assist performance. Not far behind was fellow sophomore Liam Gerdts who totaled 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 blocks in tonight’s win.