Eldorado falls in first place Black Diamond Conference battle
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The 19-day layoff Eldorado has had to endure leading up to Monday night's game with Vienna reared its ugly head in the early going. The Lady Eagles had seven turnovers, but led 11-10 after one period of play.
Things never got better for Eldorado, battling Vienna for first place in the Black Diamond Conference as they fell 58-40 at Duff-Kingston Gymnasium.
Eldorado (8-9, 4-1 BDC) failed to put anyone in double figures as Ashton Unthank and Kourtney Phillips paced the Lady Eagles with eight points a piece.
Taylor Goodley and Elise Talkington each chipped in with six points, while Cassidy Morris finished with five points.
Paige Zertuche, Erica Graczyk and Kenda Williams all scored two points and Riley Duckworth had a free throw.
Vienna outscored Eldorado 9-3 in the second quarter to take a 19-14 lead at halftime and had a double digit lead in the third quarter thanks to eight points from Brooke Childress.
The 5-foot-9 senior forward finished with a game-high 16 points, 14 of which came in the second half when Vienna made a conscious effort to get the ball inside.
Eldorado head coach Josh Bradley knew it was coming after halftime.
"We just didn't defend," he said. "We knew coming in that she was the girl we had to stop. We worked all week on keeping the ball out of the middle of the paint, away from her and box her out, but most of that stuff just went by the way side and we didn't get the job done."
Bradley had to battle foul problems for a majority of the game as Eldorado's counter to Childress, Graczyk picked up two fouls in the first two minutes of the ballgame and didn't see much action from there on out.
"You lose your best player early in the game with two fouls, not even two minutes into the game, it takes away everything you wanted to do and how you wanted to do it. The next girl has to step up and do the job, that's just the way it goes."
Eldorado will return to the hardwood Thursday when they play at Carmi-White County and then will play Gallatin County in Monday's Eldorado Mid-Winter Classic at 5:30 p.m.