Men Lose to Faith Baptist Despite Strong Defense

After a short trip to Ankeny, IA, the Emmaus Eagles arrived to watch the women's basketball team play a strong game to win against the Faith girls. Wanting to make it a sweep for the night, the men's coaching staff emphasized several key points that they felt, if accomplished, could give the Eagles an edge.

Starting off strong on the defensive end, Emmaus and Faith stayed even early on. However, it seemed that the second night of back-to-back games was having a toll on the energy level as even the bench seemed tired. Despite shooting better from every area on the court, the Eagles found themselves down by five at half.

At the break, the coaches stressed that the same issues that have plagued the team all season were hurting them again: turnovers and offensive rebounds. The defense was looking great but second-chance points and points off of steals were the cause of the deficit. The Eagles simply needed to cut down on the errors and outwork their opponent.

The second half started with Faith building on their lead and going up by double digits. Emmaus would fight back several times to cut the lead to under ten, but the tired legs and lack of execution would be too much to overcome. They would fall by the score of 65-53.

Coach Wilkerson said, "We are struggling right now to get back to the team basketball that propelled us to win our first two games. I have faith that this will be overcome as this is a great group of guys who just need to find their identity as one unit, rather than a bunch of individuals."

The Eagles return to the court Friday, December 4, in a home game against Rhema Bible College at 6 p.m.