A Tale of Two Halves

Ankeny, IA - The tough early season schedule continued for the Emmaus men's basketball team as they traveled to Ankeny, IA to play 2 games at the neutral site of Faith Baptist Bible College. First up on Friday was defending MCCC champions, Manhattan Christian College. From scouting the team, Coach Wilkerson knew that the game would come down to how well the Eagles executed their game plan. "Having watched some film on Manhattan, our coaching staff really stressed to the guys the importance of playing our game. Regardless of how good an opponent is, we feel that if we control the pace and our defense does what it is supposed to, our guys have a good chance of winning the game."

With the plan set up, the Eagles took the floor ready to play. However, they started out the game with poor shooting and some careless turnovers. Despite a cold front on the shooting end, their trademark tough defense kept them in the game and they went into the locker room at half trailing by only 2. "Watching that first half, we knew that we were the better team." Coach Wilkerson said. "We just had to go prove it. We told the guys that the game plan wasn't going to change. They just needed to sharpen up with their passes and continue to shoot and their shots would start falling."

The Eagles responded exactly as expected and came out firing. Open shots that were missed in the first half starting going in and the Eagles limited their turnovers to only 5 in the second half.  The defense never wavered and coupled with shooting 50% for the half, Emmaus walked away with an upset victory 68-61 and improved to 3-0 on the season. Caleb Ruter and Skyler Sandry combined for 45 of the 68 points with Caleb flirting with a triple double by adding 10 rebounds and 7 assists.

About 18 hours later, the Eagles would take the floor again to take on another quality opponent in Barclay College. The strategy was similar to the day before in that Emmaus would need to focus on playing their game and controlling the pace of the game. Again the Eagles would respond, as despite some more careless turnovers and some memory loss on the offense end, they controlled the half and went into the locker room up by 10.

The second half was approached the same way as the first and the coaching staff was confident in their team. "We had no doubts in our mind that we would walk away with the victory, judging by the score at half, and with the knowledge of how our guys have been playing." Coach Joel Smith explained. However, the problem that had plagued the Eagles in their early season continued as they were unable to play 2 consistent halves in the same game. With a combination of lazy possessions, careless fouls, and allowing Barclay to control the pace, Emmaus found themselves down in the late stages of the second half. With a number of key players either fouled out or sitting with 4, the players on the court rallied to keep the game close. With time winding down, Skyler Sandry managed to get to the basket and put in the game-tying basket to send the game into overtime.

However, foul trouble and fatigue caught up with the Eagles as they were outscored 18-5 in the overtime session and left Ankeny with their first loss of the season 94-81. Despite the collapse in the second half, Coach Wilkerson was able to stay encouraged. "A lot of things were learned today by both the players and the coaches. We need to be able to play a complete game and not settle for playing one solid half.  However, we are a young and talented team and we will only get better. The guys never stopped working hard and if we correct a few mistakes, we will be competing in every game this year and will win many of them." The Eagles were again playing without one of their key players, Matthew Tomlinson. He suffered a foot fracture early in the game against Crossroads but should be back in time for the start of second semester's games. The Emmaus men's team will face off next against Purdue North Central on the Eagles' home court December 2nd.