The Eaton Reds are taking a road trip to face off against the University Bulldogs at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Eaton sitting on four straight victories and University on seven.
Eaton will bounce into Wednesday's match after beating Sterling, who they had gone 1-8 against in their nine prior meetings. Eaton came out on top against Sterling by a score of 57-48 on Thursday.
Austin Crider
| 12/05/24 @ Northridge | 13 |
| 02/06/25 @ Sterling | 12 |
| 01/29/25 @ Weld Central | 12 |
| 01/21/25 vs Sterling | 11 |
| 01/16/25 @ Fort Morgan | 10 |
| + 12 more games |
Eaton can attribute much of their success to Austin Crider, who dropped a double-double on 15 points and 12 boards, and Noah Sprinkle, who went 5 of 10 to rack up 19 points. Crider has become a key player for Eaton: the team is 4-2 when he posts at least ten rebounds, but 5-6 otherwise. Ely Madaleno was another key player, putting up seven points and six assists.
Meanwhile, University got the win against Fort Morgan on Thursday by a conclusive 60-37. The Bulldogs have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won ten games by 20 points or more this season.
Eaton better focus on containing Coehn Nitzel and John Elbe as the pair were huge in University's win. Nitzel went 7 for 15 en route to 19 points along with eight boards and six assists, while Elbe went 12 of 18 on his way to 25 points in addition to five rebounds and four steals. Elbe's evening made it four games in a row in which he has scored at least 16 points. Another player making a difference was Gage Schminke, who almost dropped a double-double on nine points and ten boards.
Eaton's win was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 9-8. A key ingredient in that success has been their performance when it comes to three-point shooting accuracy: their three-point shooting accuracy was 37% in those games and 28% outside of them. As for University, their record is now 13-3.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Eaton has been crashing the boards this season, having averaged 31.1 rebounds per game. However, it's not like University struggles in that department as they've been averaging 32.8 boards. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Eaton ended up a good deal behind University in their previous matchup back in January, losing 56-41. Can Eaton avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
