The Eagles hosted conference competitor North Iowa Bison Friday night, where the Eagles conceded their ninth loss this season, now 1-9, and the Bison who evened their record 5-5.
Right from the start, the Eagles were pressed by the Bison. The first quarter saw the most points from both teams, as the Eagles scored nine and Bison pounded 23. In the second quarter, the Eagles played similarly, scoring the same amount of points with nearly the same amount of pressure from the Bison. The first half concluded 33-18 with the Bison in the lead.
As the second half approached, the Bison continued their dominance over the Eagles, scoring 15 in the third quarter. The Eagles, though still losing and pressured by the Bison, continued their drive, scoring six points in the third. With the final quarter underway, the Bison were up 48-24. The final eight minutes saw the least amount of points scored by North Iowa Bison, with the most for the Eagles. However, the game ended in a 59-33 defeat for the Eagles, which marks the eighth consecutive loss to North Iowa since 2018.
Coach Ryan Pedersen added his comments on the game, stating, “We knew going into this game that we were going to have to work extremely hard to beat North Iowa. They are a team that loves to rebound on both ends, especially the offensive end. (5th in the state in total rebounds and 1st in offensive rebounds) North Iowa didn’t shoot the ball all that great on Friday but they worked extremely hard to rebound their misses. They ended the night with 41 rebounds. The area that gave us fits was in their press. They ran a man press that trapped at half court. We tried to throw over the top too many times and a lot of our passes were tipped. We have to do a better job of passing and ball faking. Drake Canavan and Jordan Morris had good games shooting with 17 pts and 14 pts respectively. We need to find more scoring from the rest of the team in order to be successful. Hopefully, we can find it in the next couple of games.”
The Eagles are set to face St. Edmond Gaels at St. Edmond on Monday, Jan. 10, at 7:30 PM.
Stats: RBD AST STL BLK PTS
Tate Richardson 2 3 0 0 0
Drake Canavan 10 1 1 0 17
Jordan Morris 2 1 3 0 14
Jaxon Morris 4 0 4 0 0
Kale Wildering 3 1 1 0 0
Noah Thul 1 0 0 0 0
Jaden Armstead 0 0 0 0 0
Titan Christensen 2 1 1 0 2
Brandon Crail 0 0 0 0 0
Cole Fouarge 2 0 1 0 0
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