FULTON – The impressive stretch that the Fulton boys basketball team has been on since the calendar turned to 2023 is all the more impressive considering the hurdles the Steamers have had to clear along the way.

Rarely has Fulton fielded the same starting lineup during its long winning streak, which dates back to December 29, and the same was true Thursday night against Eastland in a Northwest Upstate Illini Conference South Division contest.

Playing without leading scorer Baylen Damhoff and senior Braden Dykstra, the Steamers played ... well, like they have the last month plus. The 61-41 win over Eastland marked Fulton’s 15th in a row, and improved the Steamers to 20-6 overall and a perfect 7-0 in the NUIC South.

“I tell you what, I sure hope the flu is done with us,” Fulton head coach RJ Coffey said. “We have always seemed to be shorthanded, and our guys really stepped up tonight.”

Minus the 20+ points per game from Damhoff, the scoring load fell on many others, including seniors Ethan Price and Reed Owen. Price led the way with 18 points – 11 of which came after halftime – and Owen scored 17 to pace the Steamers.

“Reed played really confident and knocked down some big shots for us,” Coffey said. “He had to have a double-double for us because you could see he was all over the glass.”

Owen did have a double-double, hauling in 11 boards to go with his 17-point night.

“Once I hit that first 3-pointer I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m about to go off,’” Owen said. “Wherever the ball went, I tried to go for it.”

Fulton pulled away from the visiting Cougars with a 14-0 run that extended from the end of the first quarter into the second. A 3-pointer from Owen with 2:07 left in the opening quarter gave the Steamers the lead for good, and ignited the long run.

“The key tonight for us was playing as a team,” Price said. “Without Baylen’s 30 points, Coach told us we all needed to step our game up, and we really got that from our bench guys tonight.”

Eastland (14-12, 6-3) kept chipping away at the Fulton lead getting it to single digits on multiple occasions. Freshman Parker Krogman led all scorers with 21 points for the Cougars, and pulled Eastland within 44-35 early in the fourth quarter with an 11-3 run.

But the Steamers closed the game with a 17-6 surge, keyed by six points from Price, to put this one away.

The evening was also a special night in the Fulton community, as the school honored sophomore Owen Frick with multiple fundraisers. Frick has been stricken by a rare form of cancer and is currently undergoing treatment. The overflow crowd was clad in black-and-gold “Fight for Frick” shirts.