BADGERS BACK TO SWAC PLAY
by Kevin White

Badgers Lose By 1 63-64

EPHRAIM —It was everything the raucous crowd at the Snow College Gymnasium wanted to see Saturday night as the SWAC conference intensity picked up and the College of Eastern Utah escaped with a hard-fought 64-63 victory over Snow College.

The game was a battle throughout and wasn’t finished until Snow point guard Brennan Davis’ hard drive to the bucket ended in an offensive foul call with .04 seconds remaining sending the 17-2 (2-2) Golden Eagles back to Price with the emotional victory.

With the game tied at 59-59 CEU Sophomore Chandler Pearson drilled a three with 1:04 to give the Golden Eagles the lead. Snow came right back with Ryan Brimley getting fouled on a 3-point shot with 40 seconds left. Brimley, Snow’s leading free-throw shooter hit two of three to cut the lead to 62-61. CEU was able to break the Badger press leading to CEU
Freshman Nick Thompson’s dunk and a three-point lead, 64-61.

Davis’ driving layup bucket cut the lead to 64-63 with 16.3 remaining. After a timeout, CEU went long to Thompson again who got too far under the basket and missed the layup, leading to the final seconds and Davis’ charging foul to end the game.

“I thought we kept them off balance and held them down,” said Coach Michael Ostlund. “They are definitely a top-20 team and we played our tails off. That is all you can ask for is a chance to win it at the end.”

The Badgers were paced by Freshman Riley Crosbie’s 16 points and eight rebounds. Donnie Lao and Ryan Brimley added 13 each in the loss.

The Badgers out-rebounded the Golden Eagles 36-29, however CEU connected on 20-30 from the line compared to Snow’s 11-17.

With the loss the Badgers drop to 14-4 and 1-2 in the SWAC leading to a rigorous road trip next week at College of Southern Idaho and North Idaho College.

The Badgers return home on January 30-31 to face rival Salt Lake Community College at the Snow College Gymansium.