Carlinville, Illinois 12/9/2023- On Saturday, the Westminster College men's basketball team was back in action against the Blackburn College Beavers in Carlinville, Illinois. It was a back-and-forth SLIAC matchup that saw 6 lead changes and 2 ties. Ultimately, the Beavers hung on to defeat the Blue Jays 82-75. Westminster falls to 1-8 on the season and 1-3 in the SLIAC. Blackburn improves to 3-5 on the season and 2-1 in the SLIAC.
Blackburn got off to a hot start getting an 8-2 lead in the first two minutes of the game. Westminster would respond and tie the game 11-11 with 13:50 left in the first half. The two teams would trade the lead and tie the game for the next five minutes of game time. The Blue Jays would take a 22-21 lead with 8:35 left before halftime. In the next possession, the Beavers regained the lead after a jump shot to make it 23-22. They would score back-to-back three-pointers to extend their lead to 29-22. They would take a 41-32 lead at the intermission.
After halftime, Westminster got to work chipping away at the Blackburn lead. The Blue Jays would cut the Beavers' lead to two points after a three from Luke Abeln made it 72-70 with 4:09 left in the game. Blackburn answered with back-to-back threes of their own to get their lead back up to eight points at 78-70, with 3:07 remaining. The Blue Jays would continue to battle but could not get the Blackburn lead to less than four, with the game turning into a free-throw battle down the stretch. In the end, the Beavers won the game 82-75.
Freshman Walker Gohring led the Blue Jays with 20 points off the bench and set a new career high for the young guard from Fulton. Ben Eberlin would have 13 points and five rebounds. The big man went 3-4 from the field and did his damage from the free throw line, going 7 for 11. Luke Abeln had 10 points off the bench for the Blue Jays. He would go 3-5 from the field, 2-2 from three, and 2-2 from the line. He would also set a new career high.
The Blue Jays will be back in action on Saturday, December 16th when they travel to Lincoln, Nebraska, to take on Nebraska Wesleyan. The game is set to tip off at 4:00 PM.
