Ian Milsteadt Named SLIAC Player of the Year; Four Red Devils Honored

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Eureka's Ian Milsteadt (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria/Illinois Central College) has been named St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year and four Red Devils have received All-SLIAC honors.

Milsteadt was also named First Team All-SLIAC for the second straight year. Junior Logan Dorethy (Hamilton, Ill./West Hancock/Hannibal LaGrange) was selected All-SLIAC Second Team, junior Charlie McKinty (Elmwood, Ill./Elmwood/Illinois College) was selected to All-SLIAC Third Team and senior Jalen Hosea (Peoria, Ill./Richwoods) received SLIAC All-Defensive Team honors.

The quartet of Red Devils were honored between SLIAC Tournament semifinal games at Fontbonne on Friday.

Milsteadt became the fifth Red Devil to earn the SLIAC Player of the Year award in EC's 16-year membership in the league. He joins Shea Feehan (2018), Mark Lessen (2013), Michael Zasada (2010) and Chris Tarpley (2007) as Eureka's winners of the award. This is also his second straight year earning First Team All-SLIAC honors.

Milsteadt, a 6-foot-2 guard, led all SLIAC scorers for the second straight year, averaging 18.2 points per game and totaling 455 points while shooting 44.8 percent from the field.  

He notched 19.5 points per game in SLIAC play, was second in the league in 3-point percentage at 39.5 percent and third in free-throw percentage at 85.2 percent. He also made the second-most total free throws on the season, putting away 98 in 115 tries.

One of the Red Devils' top rebounders, Milsteadt is averaging 5.9 per game while contributing 2.2 assists per game. He swiped a team-high 39 steals and made a team-high 18 blocks on the season. He was also fourth in the entire league in blocks as a guard.

In Tuesday's 72-63 SLIAC Tournament quarterfinal victory over Principia, Milsteadt became the 26th player in program history to score 1,000 points as a Red Devil.

This season, he scored a career-high 50 points while going 15-for-21 from the field, hitting seven 3s and pulling down 11 boards in a pivotal 95-93 comeback win over Blackburn, falling one point shy of tying the single-game program record.

He scored over 20 points on 10 occasions, and his best road performance was a 29-point showing at Principia on Feb. 14. He produced his second double-double of the season against Fontbonne, scoring 16 and collecting 10 rebounds on Feb. 12.

Milsteadt is currently third in program history in career free-throw percentage at 83.7 percent and is tied for 10th with 42 blocked shots in 61 games.

Dorethy, a 6-foot-7 big man, transferred from Hannibal LaGrange and was a huge addition to the Red Devils. In conference play, he established himself as one of the top offensive post players in the league. Coming into the SLIAC Tournament semifinals, he was third in the league in scoring with 16.2 points per game on the season and 19.1 points per game in SLIAC play.

He was fourth in the league in field-goal percentage at 55.8 percent and shot a solid 76.8 percent from the free-throw line. He was second on the team in rebounding with 6.3 boards per game.

Dorethy scored over 20 eight times and contributed two double-doubles, posting 20 points and 10 rebounds at Spalding and 28 points and 12 rebounds at Principia. He executed on his high-percentage looks in both Greenville games, averaging 36.6 points per game against the Panthers.

His best highlight was making the game-tying basket and go-ahead free throw in Eureka's 79-77 comeback win at Westminster.

This is Dorethy's second time receiving All-SLIAC honors. He also received Second Team honors for MacMurray in 2020.

McKinty was the Red Devils' third player to land in the top five in the SLIAC in scoring. The junior, who transferred to Eureka from Illinois College last year, averaged a career-high 16 points per game on the season while shooting 50 percent from the floor and 36.1 percent from distance. He ranks third in the SLIAC in free-throw percentage at 82.7 percent. He has also averaged 5.5 boards, 1.3 assists and a steal per game.

After averaging 4.6 per game and only reaching double figures once in his first 11 games as a Red Devil during the COVID 2021 season, McKinty hit double figures 21 times in 25 games. He put up 20 points or more seven times and had three double-doubles, including two in conference play.

He opened the season with a pair of big scoring games, dropping a career-high 29 points while shooting 9-of-14 from the floor and hitting eight 3s against Cornell. Then, he set a new career high with 34 points on 11-of-19 shooting against York (N.Y.). In EC's SLIAC opener against Westminster, he scored 23 points in the second half to help lift the team to a 79-76 comeback victory.

Hosea, the Red Devils' 5-foot-9 point guard, set new career-highs with 4.1 assists per game and a 3.0 assist-to-turnover ratio. He ranked third in the league in assists per game and total assists (103).

Not known for his scoring, he still managed to reach double figures six times in SLIAC play and twice stepped up with big buckets when the team needed it most. He scored the game-winning layup against Blackburn on Jan. 8 and hit the game-tying 3-pointer to send the game to overtime in Eureka's 84-81 win against Principia on Senior Day.

On the defensive end, he accumulated a career-high 23 steals, but made the biggest impact by consistently picking up the toughest defensive assignment. His best defensive performance of the season came when he held Webster's Wynne Brown Jr. to two points on 1-10 shooting from the field in 34 minutes of play in a 79-77 comeback win on the road against the Gorloks.

Senior guard Jordan Brooks was Eureka's representative on the SLIAC All-Sportsmanship Team.