For 18 minutes, the Eagles proved they belong with the big boys of competetitive basketball.
Despite hanging with Seymour for a majority of the game, No. 2 Seymour (3-0) pulled away from No. 5 Our Savior's (3-1) 62-49 in the most anticipated non-conference game of the year.
“It was a dog fight for a good portion of the game,” said head coach Phillip Heppe after the Eagles took their first lost of the year. “I give a lot of credit to Seymour. There’s a reason they won 23 straight. They showed their tenacity, their toughness.”
When you find yourself going up against one of the best defensive teams in the nation, you’re going to need somebody outside of the usual suspects to step up. With Jace Easley getting locked up for the majority of the game, the Eagles needed production from somewhere else.
Conor McCaffrey was the guy.
The point guard gave Our Savior's 22 points and six rebounds. Ian Klockenga played a lot of key minutes. Jeremiah Perkins missed a hefty chunk of time in the first half with two fouls — and picked up his third less than a minute into the second half — so the Eagles needed Klockenga to eat some minutes.
I think we are right there,” McCaffrey said after the loss. “We just have to clean up little mistakes. Lucas (Schmidt) isn’t going to have nights like that with 6 turnovers. Jeremiah (Perkins) isn’t going to have nights like that. (Jace Easley) isn’t going to shoot like that.”
“I’m really excited about moving forward with Conor,” Heppe said.
Free throws hurt, as the Eagles converted just one time in their first six attempts from the charity stripe. The game also started sloppy for both teams, understandable for two offenses that only had a few tune-ups before taking on one of the nation’s top defenses. Difference is, it stayed sloppy for Our Savior's.
Aside from McCaffrey, the Eagles struggled to get offense going. Turnovers plagued Our Savior's in the first half, giving the ball back to Seymour eight times in the game’s first 10 minutes — but nonetheless Our Savior's headed into the break down just 21-20.
The Eagles and the Falcons traded shots early in the second half, but a few offensive rebounds and steals from Seymour extended the Seymour lead to 12 points with about eight minutes remaining in the game.
We couldn’t get the stop we needed,” Heppe said. “We would score and then they would come down and score. First half they didn’t get any of those looks. Our young guys gotta understand, it’s a fight.”
Easley got going a bit in the second half for Our Savior's. The guard scored 18 points and added five assists and six boards.
The Seymour lead grew to as many as 16 and shrunk to nine, but Immanuel proved why they were ranked three spots ahead of Our Savior's.