BADGERS STUMBLE IN PRICE
by Kevin White

CEU Sweeps Snow In Price

PRICE –What a difference playing at home makes in the Scenic West Athletic Conference. CEU got hot and sprinted to a weekend sweep of the Snow College Badgers.

Friday night Utah State University transplant Aaron England hit seven of nine three pointers in the first half en-route to a 28-point outburst as the Golden Eagles sprinted to a 90-78 victory. Saturday, the Badgers once again got down early to the hot-shooting Golden Eagles behind pre-season All-American Darrington Hobson’s five three-pointers and 23 points in a 83-68 CEU win.

Friday the Golden Eagles shot 55 percent (12-22) from three-point range and raced to a 65-41 lead with 8 minutes remaining. The Badgers closed the gap to seven (82-75) with just under two minutes to play but weren’t able to get any closer as the Golden Eagles salted the game away at the free throw line.

Saturday it was Harrington’s turn. The talented sophomore from Las Vegas redeemed himself from a sub-par effort on Friday canning his first four three-point attempts as CEU sprinted to a 45-31 halftime lead, a lead that never got lower than seven in the second half.

“What can you say, they hit shots,” said Coach Michael Ostlund. “Give them credit. “They are a top-20 caliber team and this is a difficult place to play. The good thing is it looks like we may get one more shot at them in the tournament.”

Melvin Haynes had a solid weekend for the Badgers with 19 points on Friday and another 14 on Saturday. Ryan Brimley continued to shine with 15 points on Friday and another 14 on Saturday. Riley Crosbie also had a nice weekend with 11 and 13 in the losses.

The Badgers also welcomed back pre-season All-American Rory Patterson. After missing 6 weeks with an MCL injury, Patterson got back into the fray with five points on Friday and eight on Saturday. If the Badgers can get Patterson close to 80% for the tournament they will be a dangerous team.

The Badgers now return home for the final two games of the regular season against first place North Idaho College. Most likely, the Badgers need to sweep the games in order to avoid having to return to Coeur d'Alene for the SWAC post-season tournament next week. Saturday’s game will be sophomore night and the Badgers will bid farewell to David Slezak, Everton de Araujo, Donnie Lao, Ryan Brimley, and Rory Patterson.

 

	SWAC	GAMES	ALL	GAMES
TEAM	WIN	LOSS	WIN	LOSS
North Idaho College	10	3	25	3
Salt Lake Community College	10	3	23	4
College of Eastern Utah	7	6	21	6
College of Southern Idaho	7	6	20	8
Snow College	5	8	18	10
Colorado Northwestern CC	0	13	0	13