Photo by Jeff Barrett
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The USU Eastern men welcomed in the No.1 team in the country on Saturday night, the Salt Lake Community College Bruins. This was meeting number three this season, and the Eagles have yet to find the answer to stop the Bruins. Going all the way back to the first home game of the season, an eight-point win by Salt Lake, the Bruins are undefeated so far and played like it, taking a 74-59 win.
Salt Lake is 26-0 with just four games left on the regular season schedule, and they played like they were protecting that streak on Saturday.
A three pointer by Payton Falslev put the Eagles on the board and in the lead 3-2 at the 19:23 mark. Unfortunately, that was both the first and the last time USU Eastern would lead in the game. Isaac Castagnetto tied the game up at seven at 15:41 in the first, but it was all Salt Lake Community College after that as they took a 37-25 lead into the locker room at the half.
In the second half, it was more of the same from the Bruins. The Eagles tried to cut the lead down, getting it to single digits twice, but every time the Bruins pushed it back up, always keeping USU Eastern at a distance. Salt Lake pushed the lead to as high as 16 in the half before taking the win 74-59.
Falslev led the Eagles with 15 points, grabbing two rebounds and dishing out four assists. Kurt Wegscheider added 12 with six boards and three assists while BJ Davis had 11 with three rebounds, two assists and three steals in the loss.
The Eagles are 16-9 overall and sit at 8-6 in conference play with three games left until the conference tournament, which starts on Feb. 24. The next contest will be on the road in Twin Falls to take on the College of Southern Idaho on Wednesday. This will be the third time the two schools have met up this season, with USU Eastern taking the previous two. The Eagles will be back at home on Saturday when they welcome the College of Southern Nevada to the BDAC. Game time is set for 3 p.m.