MADISON, Wis. – All signs pointed to a nail-biter at the Edgedome Monday night, as Edgewood College and Marian University traded buckets for most of the first 30 minutes of play. The Eagles then went on a tear and saw their lead balloon to double digits in the closing minutes to ultimately win 65-53. The Eagles now sit in fourth place in the NACC with a 5-3 record and are now 6-7 overall.
Neither team was able to garner a lead of more than four points in the first half and it wasn't until the 14:51 mark of the second half before Marian pushed their lead to five after a tip-in from Montrell Hobbs to go up 36-31. The sharpshooting duo of Tal Diekvoss and Adam Freitag then stepped up for the Eagles and gave the Eagles all the momentum on their home court.
Diekvoss answered Hobbs' tip-in with his second triple of the night on the next possession to make it a two-point game at 36-34. Diekvoss, who leads the NACC in three-point percentage at 48.7 percent, came up clutch again with another deep ball to give the Eagles their first lead since the end of the first half.
A dunk and a jumper from Marian's Josh Creed gave the Sabres another three-point lead with 12:18 left, but Freitag stepped up with his presence beyond the arc. Trevon Ampe made it a one-point game after sinking two free throws with 12:00 left before Freitag connected from deep to give the Eagles a 42-40 lead with 10:09 left. Sabres' guard Isiah Daniels tied it up on the next possession, but Freitag promptly came down on the next possession and buried another to give the Eagles a three-point lead they would never surrender.
The closest the Sabres would get from there on out was at the 7:09 mark, when Creed hit a pair of free throws to make it a four-point game at 48-44. The Eagles would stretch their lead to double digits just over three minutes later and would never allow the Sabres within 10 the rest of the way.
Diekvoss finished with 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting, all of which came beyond the three-point line. Derek Braucht was the only other Eagles player in double figures with 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting. Freitag's two triples were his only shot attempts on the night in his nine minutes of playing time. Creed struggled from the floor and was 4-of-11 but made up for it with a 7-of-10 effort from the charity stripe and finished with 15. Hobbs wound up with 10 points for the Sabres.
Edgewood College will return to action on Wednesday, Jan. 7 against Dominican University at the Edgedome. Game time is set for 7 pm.
