1/14/2024 Fulton, Mo- The Westminster College men's basketball team took on the Eureka College Red Devils on Sunday afternoon from inside the Historic Gym. The Blue Jays got their second win of the season defeating the Red Devils 84-81. Freshman Walker Gohring had a career game, 28 points, and grabbed nine rebounds en route to the victory. The Jays improved to 2-13 on the season and 2-6 in the SLIAC. With the victory, Blue Jay head coach Todd Creal picked up his 150th career win.
The Red Devils would nail a three to start the game, one of eight total that they would make to take a 3-0 lead. Walker Gohring would get in a groove early, hitting an elbow jumper to score the opening basket for the Blue Jays. Eureka would go on a small run to gain a 17-10 lead. Westminster would battle back and a steal from Jacob Becker led to him getting a breakaway dunk to put the Blue Jays down one, 27-26. Becker would get another steal on the Red Devils' next possession and this time it led to a three-pointer from Gohring to give Westminster a 29-27 lead with 7:15 left in the first half. Westminster would grow their lead to 39-33 with 4 minutes to go until halftime. Eureka would end the half on a three-point play as they headed to the locker room trailing, 42-38.
Coming out of the half, the Blue Jays would get the ball down low to Ben Eberlin, who scored easily for the first points of the half and put Westminster up 44-38. The Red Devils would get an and one to tie the game 53-53 with 14 minutes and some change remaining. Westminster answered every time Eureka looked like they were about to go on a run and kept them at arm's length with a slight lead for the middle parts of the second half. The Red Devils would cut it one point after making a jump shot to make it 74-73. They would force the Blue Jays to turn the ball over the next possession and that led to two free throws for the Red Devils. After making both free throws, they regained the lead for the first time since there were 8 minutes left in the first half. The lead would be short-lived as Brennan Jeffries got to the charity stripe and gave the Blue Jays a 76-75 lead with 4:22 left on the clock. This would start a 6-0 run for the Jays, who extended their lead to 80-75.
Eureka countered with a run of their own to cut the lead back down to one point, with one minute remaining. The Red Devils would begin to foul to extend the game and they put Aarron Poage on the free throw to try to put the game away. The freshman stepped up and knocked down both free throws to give the Blue Jays an 84-81 lead with only seconds left. Eureka would inbound the ball. Coach Creal put the 6"6' sophomore, Jacob Becker, on the inbound. He would almost cause a five-second call due to how difficult he made it from the Red Devils to inbound the ball. Once they got inbound, Becker would get a hand on the ball, forcing the Eureka player to chase after the ball as the game came to an end and securing the 84-81 win.
Walker Gohring would go 12-18 from the field, 3-3 from the free throw line and made one three-pointer to give him his career-high 28 points on the day. The freshman would also grab 9 rebounds, 2 steals, and had an assist. Senior guard Brennan Jeffries had 20 points as well for the Jays. He would be 5-12 from the field and 9-10 from the free throw line. Aaron Poage had 10 points off the bench.
The Blue Jays will be back in action on Thursday, January 18th when they travel to Batesville, Arkansas, to take on Lyon College.
