The Eagles finally belong in the state spotlight again.
No. 6 Our Savior's had lost four straight to CTK dating back to 1995. That streak was snapped on Sunday night. The Eagles walked out of Sacred Heart Griffin, with a 63-48 victory over the No. 10 Christ The King Cougars.
It was the second primetime matchup for Our Savior's in seven days after falling to No. 2 Immanuel Seymour last Monday in Indianapolis. But this time around, the Eagles proved they deserved to be considered among the top teams in the State with a signature nonconference win that could really carry some weight come LSA Tournament Seeding in February.
The Eagles got about as good a start as head coach Phillip Heppe could’ve asked for. Our Savior's took advantage of some early CTK turnovers and raced out to a 12-2 lead. Point guard Conor McCaffrey — who drew the matchup against fellow guard Bryce Musgrave — connected from deep on each of his first three attempts.
The offense stalled for almost three minutes midway through the first half as the Eagles searched for a bucket, and the Cougars trimmed the lead to eight. Credit the Eagles defense for doing a great job of forcing the Cougars into a lot of contested midrange jumpers and keeping a young team from finding any rhythm on offense.
The only two first half three-point attempts the Eagles missed came from Jace Easley; Lucas Schmidt converted on both of his tries behind the arc and Conor McCaffrey added one more to his 3-for-3 start with the Eagles taking a 33-19 edge into the half.
They stumbled out of the second half gates, putting the Cougars in the bonus in the opening four minutes. Despite foul trouble to Easley, Schmidt and Jeremiah Perkins and way too many turnovers (18), the Eagles used a well-balanced attack to keep CTK at bay. Eight different players scored. The Cougars shot better from the perimeter (5-of-15) than they did in the first half (0-of-7), but it was never enough to close the gap and threaten the outcome of this one. Our Savior's would pull away, 63-48.