Eads Shocked By Karval, 58-57, Rebounds to Beat Stratton

By Betsy Barnett

January 23, 2004

With 13 seconds left on the clock in Karval on Friday night and Eads up by one point, 57-56, the Trojan's Andrew Wolf drove from one end of the court to other through five Eagle defenders to make the winning lay-up giving his team an upset, 58-57, win over the defending state champion Eads Eagles. Eads would rebound on Saturday night in Stratton controlling a strong Eagle team, 64-56, to save a confidence in the disappointing weekend.

Dismal shooting and poor defensive effort plagued the Eads Eagles in Karval on Friday night. While senior swing guard Steven Gilmore controlled the offensive tempo for Eads the defensive side of the Eagle game could not find an answer for 6'8 Michael Jewell's outside shooting game that nailed him four long balls in the contest. Eads jumped out to a 12-8 lead after one behind Gilmore's two treys and a deuce, but poor decisions and lackluster allowed the Trojans to stay pace with Eads throughout the second quarter. Eads fell behind, 24-22, at the intermission. The second half was all Gilmore for Ead as he hit four more of his six long balls on the night. But Jewell's outside shooting answered Gilmore bucket for bucket and some defensive letdowns allowed Karval to stick around. After three Eads had knotted the score at 42. Early in the final stanza Eads jumped up to a ten point lead at one point before more defensive errors allowed Karval to come roaring back. Jewell hit a huge three late in the fourth and then was fouled by Adam Saffer on the arc the next trip down which resulted in three straight free throws and Karval back in the contest. The Eagles were up by two with less than a minute to go when both Dain Barnett and Marcus Gilmore missed a couple of free throws. The charity stripe was not friendly to Eads all night as they shot a dismal 4 for 12 while Karval enjoyed 12 points out of 17 attempts. But in the end, it was the defense that lost the game as the Eagles failed to stop a full-court drive by Wolf whose layup put the Trojans up by one with 6 seconds remaining. Eads had to go the length of the court and Gilmore did get a half way decent look at the bucket but things would not fall Eads' way.

Gilmore finished as high man overall on the night with 29 points for Eads. Karval's scoring attack came from Jewell and Wolf with 19 and 18 points respectively.

Despite a 27-point effort by Stratton's Nathanial Gray Eads managed to hold off a last quarter attack to get a 64-56 win over a physical Stratton team. Eads would have a decent night offensively, once again, hitting for eight long balls. However, although better, the defense still had its problems suffering from occasional mental breakdowns. Breakdowns against good teams can be very costly, as Eads found out, as they blew a 21-point lead late in the fourth quarter to barely hold on to the win. Once again it was Steve Gilmore with control of the offensive game for Eads as he nailed 30 points in the contest. Eads would lead at halftime behind Gilmore's five treys and 21 points by a comfortable eleven-point margin, 32-21. But Gray would come roaring back and the second half was all his as the Eads group could not find anyone with an answer to Gray's quickness and good outside shooting. Eads still led by 13 to begin the fourth quarter, 49-36, and would extend that lead to 21 points with a little over three minutes remaining. They dodged a big scare by Gray and the Green Eagles and were thankful that the clock ran out of time when it did as Stratton inched ever nearer as the clock wound down.

Brother Marc would follow Gilmore's 30 point performance with 12 points of his own for Eads, while Levi Kraft added nine more to the Eagle tally.

The High Plains League is anyone's call at this point as Karval's upset over Eads was not the only upset of the night. Underdog Granada hosted top-ranked Kit Carson and came away with a huge upset over the undefeated Wildcats. Now Eads, Karval, Kit Carson, Granada, and McClave all have one loss in the Too-Close-To-Call conference.

However, things may loosen up this weekend for Eads if they play their cards right in two big conference matchups. Cheraw comes to town on Friday night while Eads will travel to Granada on Saturday night.