Kirkwood Mens Basketball

Sartorius boosts No. 5 Eagles by DMACC

Brady Sartorius enjoyed a fabulous career at Mount Pleasant High School and was looking forward to a big freshman campaign at Kirkwood, but then the injuries set in.

He injured his back during the preseason, then hurt his ankle and Achilles tendon during a game in December and was sidelined again. All told, he missed five games and had trouble getting into the flow of things.

Sartorius is still not 100 percent in the pink, but he sure looked good Wednesday night.

Sartorius popped off the bench and popped in a career-best 17 points to help the fifth-ranked Eagles pull away from 17th-ranked DMACC, 92-76, in an ICCAC conference game at Johnson Hall.

Sartorius made four 3-pointers and contributed three rebounds, three assists and two steals in the backcourt.

"He was huge," said Kirkwood Coach Bryan Petersen. "That's the Brady Sartorius we were expecting. Obviously he had a tough go of it in the first semester with injuries.

"I'm really proud of him for coming back and being ready to go. Hopefully we'll have him the rest of the year."

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No. 7 Eagles spank Illinois Valley

The Kirkwood men's basketball team returned from its holiday vacation Saturday afternoon and dumped Illinois Valley, 110-72, in a non-conference game at Johnson Hall.

The seventh-ranked Eagles raised their record to 12-2 with five players scoring in double figures.

All-American Doug Wilson led Kirkwood with 19 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Luke Appel collected a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds.

Seybian Sims finished with 12 points and nine rebounds. Allante Pickens and Brady Sartorius also scored 12 points. Sartorius, who was sidelined before the holidays with a leg injury, also had eight assists, five rebounds and three 3-pointers.

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No. 3 KCC men earn holiday

The Kirkwood men's basketball team will have three weeks to enjoy what they've accomplished so far this season before they play another basketball game.

Happy holidays, Eagles.

The third-ranked Eagles spanked John Wood, 86-70, in a non-conference game at Johnson Hall Saturday to head into the holiday break with an 11-2 overall record.

Kirkwood will not play again until Jan. 5 and will not practice again for two weeks. Coach Bryan Petersen thinks his guys have earned a respite from the physical and mental grind of a long season.

"I think we've learned a lot about our team this first semester," he said. "There are some good things, but we also know our weaknesses.

"The 11-and-2 record is great, (but) a 2-and-0 record in league play is the most important thing right now."

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Eagles dumped by Blackhawks, 75-63

The Kirkwood Eagles shot poorly, committed 19 turnovers, got pounded on the backboards, missed too many free throws and struggled on defense much of the night.

"That's just a recipe for disaster," Coach Bryan Petersen acknowledged Wednesday night.

Southeastern Community College surged to a 22-point lead in the first half and dumped the Eagles, 75-63, in a non-conference game at Johnson Hall.

Kirkwood (10-2) has lost only two games all season and both setbacks have been to the Blackhawks, including an 86-84 verdict Nov. 3 in the second game of the campaign.

The Eagles had won nine straight games before running into a buzz-saw in the first half when SCC soared to a 34-12 advantage with seven minutes left in the stanza.

Petersen said the biggest problem was a lack of mental toughness.

"They came out and kind of took it right to us in a lot of ways," he said. "We couldn't finish around the rim, we couldn't get the ball across halfcourt against their pressure, and defensively we couldn't guard the paint. So a lot of things went wrong in the first five or 10 minutes."

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