Blackburn and Greenville To Meet In Championship Game

For the first time in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference history Blackburn College and Greenville University will meet for the Men's Basketball Tournament Championship. The championship game will take place on Saturday, February 24 at 1 p.m. in Greenville, Illinois.

Inside the Game (#2 Eureka vs. #3 Blackburn) - BOX SCORE
Blackburn, playing in their first postseason game since 2006, won their third straight overtime game defeating Eureka College 86-80. The game featured 15 ties and 21 lead changes with each team knocking down key shots just before buzzers. Blackburn's Reed Rusten hit a three just before halftime to put the Beavers up 36-33. Eureka's big shot came with 3.1 seconds on the clock in regulation when Ryan McElmurry hit a triple to tie the game at 73-73 and send the game into overtime. Eureka took the early lead in overtime on a pair of free-throws by Dakota Bennington but after a Malcolm Scott layup gave the Beavers a 76-75 lead his team would not trail again. 

• The win marked Blackburn's first postseason win since the 2005 tournament.
• Eureka guard Shea Feehan set a new Red Devil single-season scoring record in the game, finishing the year with 673 points.

Inside the Game (#1 Greenville vs. #4 Westminster) - BOX SCORE
Greenville, the top-seeded team in the tournament, eventually pulled away from Westminster in the second-half of the game to win 125-112. The Panthers opened the game up with the first eight points but the two-time defending tournament champion Westminster quickly evened the score up at 10-10. The game remained tight, with the score tied at 26-26 midway through the first-half. However, the Panthers offense quickly heated up, scoring 35 points over the final nine minutes of the game and taking a 61-50 lead into the break. 

• Greenville will be playing in their second straight SLIAC Championship game and are looking for their first title since 1998. 
• Westminster was led by Kobe Wands' 33 points. 

- #SLIACtion -