Day-off deal helps to propel CEU over Snow

PRICE — With the game against Snow College on the line Saturday, coach Chris Craig found an enticing way to get his College of Eastern Utah men's basketball players motivated.

"When it was tied at 76, I told them that if we win I'll give them the day off Monday," he said. "And we went on an (8-2) run. Imagine that."

The inspired Golden Eagles — led by Darington Hobson's 27 points, eight rebounds and six assists — can now imagine what they'll do with Martin Luther King Jr. Day suddenly freed up. Their late defensive-charged spurt boosted them to a late come-from-behind 84-78 win over the Badgers.

To the CEU players' credit, their surge in the back-and-forth game started just before their coach gave them some incentive. Down 76-72 with 2:26 remaining, Colby Vranes hit a free throw, Stephen Franklin turned a steal into a layup, Hobson added a free throw after another steal and Felix Caspari powered in a bucket down low after CEU forced Snow into a shot-clock violation turnover.

In that 1 1/2-minute flurry, CEU overtook the Badgers. The Golden Eagles kept the big mo, finishing the game on a 12-2 run in the final 2:26.

"The last two minutes we got four stops right there in a row, which is huge," said Craig, CEU's rookie coach. "It was mind-boggling to me, because we talked about all day today how we're going to guard their stuff and we didn't do a good job of it for 38 minutes. But the last two minutes we did a tremendous job."

CEU need the extra intensity late on in order to try containing Snow guard Rene Farias, who exploded for 30 points on 12-for-19 shooting. He scored 12 of the Badgers' final 16 points but only got two free throws in the final four minutes.

"The big thing was getting stops and I think we did a good job of doing that," Hobson said. "Coach always preaches to us every day in practice toughness. We get mad at him every day, but I think this is the game we showed toughness."

Caspari also had a solid game for CEU, hitting 8 of 9 shots for 16 points with five rebounds. Franklin, who had 11 points and three assists, steals and rebounds, and Steve Goodell (10 points) also contributed to the win that improved CEU's record to 10-7 and 2-2 in SWAC action.

Snow shot a blistering 54.4 percent from the field and also got an 18-point performance from Rory Patterson, but the late meltdown dropped the Badgers to 9-9, 1-2.

NO. 3 SLCC 95, CNCC 57: At Rangely, Colo., former Davis High sharpshooter Brian Green had another big scoring night, finishing with 19 points, to lead the third-ranked Bruins to their 18th straight victory.

Three other players hit double digits for SLCC, which improved to 3-0 in the SWAC. Andy Palmer and Papa Samba Guisse each scored 13 points, and Aaron Smith chipped in with 10 points.

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