DUBUQUE, Iowa - Take away the first eight minutes of Edgewood College's season opener and the Eagles would've been in a tight one against Loras College Monday night at the Athletic & Wellness Center. The Eagles dug themselves into too big of a hole and couldn't quite keep pace in the second half, falling 77-63.
Edgewood College had trouble converting early on, as the Eagles didn't make their first field goal until the 13:01 mark, when Dylan Heemstra buried a jumper in the lane. But by then the Duhawks had tacked on 15 points. Moments later, Brian Nkemnji and Arik Anderson hit jumpers on back-to-back possessions to make it 17-7.
Just when the Eagles started hitting their stride on offense the Duhawks caught fire from downtown. Loras hit seven of their eight triples in the first half and six came in just under a six-minute span to give the Duhawks a commanding 32-15 lead after Justin VanWambeke followed Adam Freitag's triple with one of his own. The Eagles were down 43-26 before Anderson hit another shot from downtown to make it 43-29 heading into the break.
The Duhawks continued to take advantage of mismatches down low and stretched their lead to 19 with 13:08 remaining. Freshman Tyler Westrick would end the Duhawks run with a three-pointer to make it 60-44 to mark the beginning of a threat for the Eagles.
Minutes later Freitag would drain his fourth and final three-pointer of the night to make it a 10-point game with 8:08 left. He would grab a rebound on the other end and would go coast-to-coast on a nifty spin move lay-in to cut the deficit to eight at 63-55 with 7:10 remaining. Loras would score on three of their next four possessions to stretch their lead back to 12 again and the Eagles would never get it back to single-digits from there.
Loras forward Mirko Grcic, who had 34 points and 26 rebounds in last season's overtime win over the Eagles, was equally effective this time around with 29 points and 14 rebounds on 11-of-19 shooting.
Freitag wound up with 18 points—which is four more than his previous best—on 7-of-11 shooting, including a 4-of-8 showing from beyond the arc. Tyler Lemke finished second on the team in scoring with nine points and snagged five rebounds. Jim Bridges pulled down nine boards while Emilio Lopez totaled seven and also finished with five points.
The Eagles continue their non-conference schedule with a matchup against 23rd-ranked UW-Oshkosh on Tuesday, Nov. 24 on the road. The game will take place at 7 pm from the Kolf Sports Center.
