The Blackburn College Men's Basketball Team dropped a 67-50 St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Contest to the visiting Eureka College Red Devils on Wednesday night in Carlinville. The Red Devils scored the final 16 points in the contest over the last three minutes to prevail.
A jam-packed Dawes Gymnasium was rocking early as the Beavers jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the first 5:19 of the game, which included a spectacular alley-oop dunk by DeAndre Manuel from Jake Maestranzi. The Beavers could not sustain the hot start as Eureka clawed back and eventually led by nine points with 2:58 to go in the half. The half ended in a frenzy as Maestranzi dropped in a near half-court three pointer to pull Blackburn within three at 30-27 at the half.
Eureka led the first eight minutes of the second half before Blackburn regained the lead at 41-40 with 12:16 to play. The game stayed tight until the last three minutes when the Red Devils went on their game-ending run.
It was an off-shooting night for the Beavers as they missed numerous open shots and finished just shooting 32 percent on the night. Blackburn added 18 turnovers on top of the cold shooting and were out-rebounded 43-34 on the night.
Maestranzi led Blackburn in scoring with 13 points while Manuel added eleven.
The Beavers are now 10-14 on the season and 9-8 in the SLIAC Conference. Eureka is 11-13 and 9-8 in league play. Blackburn faces a must-win situation on Saturday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky when the Beavers take on Spalding University which also sits at 9-8 in the league as well as Webster University, creating that 4-team pileup for the last spot in the conference tournament.