Eureka, IL 2/10/2024- The Westminster College men's basketball was on the road Saturday afternoon to take on the Eureka College Red Devils. Both teams came into the game on the bubble to make the conference tournament. The winner keeps their postseason hopes alive, and the loser will need a lot of help to make the tournament with 2 games remaining. Neither team was ready to pack it up in a game that saw 38 ties, 32 lead changes and double overtime to determine a winner. When the dust settled, the Blue Jays were able to walk away with a 96-91 win. Westminster improves to 5-18 on the season and 5-11 in the SLIAC. Eureka falls to 7-16 on the year and 5-11 in the SLIAC.
The game was tied 37-37 at halftime. At the end of regulation, the Red Devils were leading 76-74 with 30 seconds left and the Blue Jays had possession of the ball. Jack Fessenden shot a three with 15 seconds left on the clock and missed it. Westminster gets three offensive rebounds and three put back attempts and none of those would fall. Then freshman Gavin Hendrix came up with the fourth offensive rebound tip-in at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.
Eureka would open the first overtime period with a three pointer to take a 79-76 lead. The Blue Jays would tie the game but were not able to take the lead. The Red Devils would score with 38 seconds left to go up 85-83. Westminster would call timeout with 30 seconds left. After the timeout, senior Brennan Jeffries, who has hit big shots all-season for the Blue Jays, came up clutch one more time, drilling a jumper to tie 85-85. The Red Devils would get two shots off at the end of the first overtime to win it, but neither shot would fall.
In the second overtime, the Blue Jays would take the lead 88-87 after freshman Walker Gohring put them on top with 3:40 left. Westminster would get a stop and then Gohring would get fouled and sent to the free throw line for two shots. He would make both and extended the Blue Jay lead to 90-87. Westminster would get another defensive stop, forcing Eureka to turn the ball over. This would lead to a layup by Brennan Jeffries on the other end to make it 92-87 and a two-possession game with 2 minutes left on the clock. The Red Devils would make a three pointer to cut it to 92-90 and a minute and a half left. Jacob Becker made a layup to make it a four-point lead, 94-90. The Red Devils got to the free throw line and went 1 and 1 to make it 94-91. Brennan Jeffries was fouled on the next possession; he iced the game after making both free throws and securing the 96-91 win for the Blue Jays.
Brennan Jeffries led the Blue Jays with 23 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals. He would go 6-8 from the free throw line. Freshman Jack Fessenden had 21 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals. He would make 4 threes in the game. Fellow freshman Walker Gohring had 17 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists for his fourth double-double of the season. Brysan Jeffries had 11 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists.
The Blue Jays will be back in action on February 15th when they take on Lyon College at home. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:30 pm.
