MADISON, Wis. – Edgewood College saw its shooting woes disappear in the first half in its 2015-16 home opener at the Edgedome against MSOE Tuesday night but couldn't find an answer to the Raiders' halftime adjustments, falling 80-57 to drop to 0-4 and 0-2 in the NACC. The Eagles shot 50.0 percent in the first half and led by four heading into the break but were outscored 49-22 in the second.
MSOE went up 14-7 at the 14:13 mark in the first half but a jumper from Emilio Lopez and back-to-back buckets from Tyler Lemke sliced the Raiders' lead to just one with 11:42 remaining in the half. Moments later Arik Anderson drilled a shot to make it 17-all and Tyler Westrick would give the Eagles their first lead of the game with a three-pointer on an assist from Anderson.
The two teams would trade buckets until the Eagles went on an 8-0 run that was capped by Adam Freitag's jumper at the 2:18 mark to go up seven. MSOE's Alex Darville responded with a bucket on the other end but Spencer Barnes would hit one of his four three-pointers immediately after to go up eight again.
The Eagles held MSOE without a three-pointer in the first half and would make 15 of their own 30 field goal attempts to lead 35-31 at the break.
Max Wojcik sparked the Raiders early in the second half with back-to-back three-pointers to go up 40-38 with 16:43 left. A Dylan Heemstra triple and a Lopez jumper would help the Eagles go up three points at 43-40, but MSOE would go on a monster run shortly after.
The Raiders would then score 19-straight points to take the commanding 59-43 lead. Barnes would finally end the free fall with a three-pointer and would nail another one on the Eagles' next possession to make it a manageable 12-point deficit. But the Raiders proved to be too much and went on an 11-0 run to go up 72-49 to end the threat.
After shooting 50.0 percent in the first half, the Eagles turned around to make only six field goals in 25 attempts for a percentage of 24.0 in the second. They also showed flashes of aggressiveness and patience on the defensive end and managed to hold Preseason All-American Austin Stueck to by far his fewest amount of points this year. He only scored 13 Tuesday but had scored at least 23 in each of the previous four games this season.
Barnes finished with 16 points—a mark that is 11 points more than his previous career best—on 6-of-14 shooting. Lopez was the other Eagles in double figures with 11 on 5-of-10 shooting. Four other Eagles had at least four points, including eight from senior forward Dylan Heemstra.
The Eagles return to action on Saturday, Dec. 5 at Concordia Chicago for a 2 pm game at Geiseman Gymnasium.
