1/6/2024 Fulton, Mo- The Westminster College men's basketball team took on the Spalding University Golden Eagles in a Saturday matinee. It would be a close contest until the last minutes in a game that saw six ties and four lead changes. Spalding would pull away late and win the game 86-72 to improve to 5-7 on the season and 4-2 in the SLIAC. Westminster falls to 1-12 overall and 1-5 in the SLIAC.
Spalding would jump out to a 7-3 lead in the early goings. The Blue Jays would then get hot shooting, making three straight three-pointers, four total in the first five minutes to take a 14-7 lead. The Blue Jays would continue their run, scoring five unanswered points and growing their lead to 19-8. Spalding would respond by going on an 8-0 run to bring it back to 21-19. The Golden Eagles would tie the game 25-25 with 5:30 left in the first half. After back-to-back threes, they extended their lead to 36-28. The Blue Jays would get a steal with a minute remaining that led to a basket. The Golden Eagles would score right back and took a 41-36 lead at the break.
Spalding would extend their lead to 53-45 in the opening five minutes of the second half. The Blue Jays then went on a 7-0 run to get within one point at 53-52. Westminster would continue to hang around, but could not tie the game or regain the lead. Spalding would go on a run and grew their lead up to 8 points at 70-61 with five minutes to go. They would go on to win the game 86-72.
The Blue Jays had four different players score in double figures led by freshman Walker Gohring and Aaron Poage, who both had 15 points in the game. Gohring had 6 rebounds and 2 steals. Poage had 3 rebounds and went 4-6 at the free-throw line. Brennan Jeffries had 14 points, going 5-10 from the field with one three-pointer and went 3-4 from the free throw line. His brother, Brysan Jeffries, had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. He would go 4-7 from the field and 3-3 from the free-throw line.
The Blue Jays will return on Tuesday, January 9th when they take on Principia College. The game will tip-off at 7:30 in Elsah, Illinois.
