EATON — The wait is finally over.
For the first time since the 1998-99 season Eaton’s boys basketball team claimed a share of a league title.
Heading into its final league game of the season, Eaton needed a win and some help from Monroe to earn its first league title in more than two decades.
It almost didn’t matter what the result of the Monroe/Carlisle game was early on as the Eagles fell behind visiting Middletown Madison by double-digits.
But the Eagles rallied, with help from the home crowd, to beat the Mohawks 58-55, in overtime.
The Eagles were led by Ramy Ahmed’s 23 points, 10 rebound, seven assist performance. Beau Miller added 13 points and eight rebounds.
And as the players were starting to leave the court after shaking hands with Madison it was learned that Monroe won 58-47, which set off a celebration amongst the players, coaches and fans.
“I was happy for Coach Sullender and Coach Shafer, who have spent a lot time dedicating their life to this program and not really getting the results that we all probably want. So to see them actually see the end result is awesome. I’m super happy for our players,” Eaton coach Sean Sims said.
Sims said the team took on a major facelift at the beginning of the season.
“Early in this season we lost a couple guys that we thought were going to be on the team due to injuries. We had a couple people decide that they didn’t want to come out for basketball anymore,” Sims said. “So within the short span of a month, our team completely changed our dynamic from having some some returning minutes and returning scoring to ‘hey, we’re gonna kind of rip the page off the notebook and kind of clean slate it’ so it’s been it’s been a journey because initially we knew it was going to be a little rocky to start just with young guys but we also knew that there was light at the end of the tunnel. The players have been working really hard and they’re buying into what we’re doing. And we just knew that if we continued to play team oriented basketball and connected and continue to get better, then we had a really good chance of one winning and given ourselves a chance to win the league. I think through the course of the season, we’ve done a good job of taking care of business for the most part, we got some great wins that and it put us in a position to clinch the league title, which has been the first time since 1999.”
Sims said he’s happy for everyone involved with the program.
“I’m just happy for everyone that was in the gym,” Sims said. “There’s just a lot of people that pour a lot of energy and help into us and it probably doesn’t get noticed a lot. I’m just very thankful for having everyone in our life and just very, very appreciative for all the support. So I think we’re really excited. But this also is t just the start and we’re gonna keep it rolling and we have high expectations for where we’re going to go.”
Eaton (9-13, 6-7 SWBL West) will return to the court on Saturday, Feb. 19 when its meets Tippecanoe at 3 p.m. in the first round of the Division II sectional tournament at Trent Arena.
