Wimberly Scores 29 to Push Eagles over Truett McConnell

Cleveland, GA - Just about three weeks ago, the Eagles were trying to get over a few early-season injuries to key players. These injuries definitely had an impact on games, but that is part of the game and you have to push through the best you can. During this period, the Eagles hosted the Bears of Truett McConnell to Waleska and the Bears were able to take advantage of those injuries. The Bears were able to beat the Eagles by nineteen points in the first meeting and the Eagles were needing to correct the loss this time around as the Eagles would visit the campus of Truett McConnell on Saturday.

Not all can be blamed on injuries for a few of the early season losses. The team has many new faces and anyone that has played team sports before knows that it does take a little time for teams with new parts to gel together. It seems that the Eagles are taking the right steps as they would turn around the nineteen-point loss in the first game to an eight-point victory in today's matchup. It is a big step for the team to make this kind of turnaround in those three weeks and you can expect the Eagles to only improve upon this going forward.

In today's matchup, Jalin Wimberly was the one that would take the lead to make sure the Eagles were victorious.  Wimberly had 29 points shooting 10-19 from the field and 8 of 10 from the free throw line. Often it is said that free throws are the key to beating teams and Wimberly had 8 points from the free-throw line. The 8-point margin exactly matched the point spread of the final score of this game exactly.  Wimberly also had 5 rebounds in 2 steals in the game.

As a team, the Eagles shot 48.4% from the field and 72.4% from the free-throw line, which is a huge improvement from the way they were shooting earlier in the season. The Eagles only shot 30.8% from the three-point line in the game, which is slightly down from the past few games for the Eagles.  A sign of a good team is that you are able to score in different ways in order to get a win, and the Eagles found a way to win when the three-pointers were not dropping for them.

Nate Louis and Greg Hobbs joined Wimberly in putting up double-figures in the game. Louis had 12 points and 6 rebounds in the game and Hobbs had 10 points and 7 rebounds in the game. Antonio Spencer and Tyler Smith were just outside of scoring double-figures with both getting 8 points each. Smith is slowly working his way back into the line-up after being out several weeks with one of those early-season injuries. Smith can easily be one of the top players on this team and as time goes on and he gets more minutes - look for his scoring and production to pick up and reestablish his name toward the top in all statistics.

The win at Truett McConnell was very big for the Eagles because it extended their winning streak to three games and they have won 5 of their last 6 games. The Eagles will be back on campus for a Tuesday late afternoon conference game with Bluefield. The game is scheduled for 4 pm. The student body has already left for the Christmas break so please do what you can to come out and support the Eagles to get another win Tuesday and keep the new winning streak going.

Photo Credit to G-Rox Photography, Greg Spell Photography