Box Score by sixteen earlier in the year and that had lost it's last two games. The Eagles executed down the stretch to erase a nine point first half lead on the way to a 65-59 win. David Volpe led all scorers with twenty in the win.

The real story of the game was not in the scoring, but in the defense. In the first PAC game of the year, Gwynedd-Mercy guard Rashid Santiago tore up the Eagles for twenty points and was able to get the Griffins into whatever sets they wanted to run. Since that game, the Griffins also added high scoring forward David Smith to their line up. At 6'7, Smith looked to be a huge match up problem for the Eagles as well. The Eastern coaching staff had to figure out a way to slow these two down without giving hot shooting Chris DelBrocco any open looks from three.

The coaching staff chose to cross match players to create vastly different looks for the Griffins while keeping David Volpe, who held DelBrocco to four in the first contest on DelBrocco. Matt Malloy, at 6'4, drew the assignment of containing the 5'8 Santiago. With Malloy's constant presence, the shifty left-handed guard scored just a single free throw and did not attempt a shot. More importantly for the Eagles, Santiago did not pick up a single assist for the hosts.

With Malloy out of the mix inside, the coaching staff put the assignment of checking Smith on the shoulders of Ty Coleman. In making just his second career start, the 6'2 guard worked to front the bigger Smith and managed to score nine points of his own. Always there to help on the weak side, Mike Johnson picked up six blocks in the game and corralled nine tough boards.

The first half opened with the host Griffins hitting tough shots and moving out to an early lead. DelBrocco and Corey Rich each hit tough jumpers early to give the hosts leads at 9-7 and 11-9, but the Eagles worked the ball inside for answering lay-ups and even took a brief lead at 13-11 before Matt Johnson hit a three for Gwynedd to put the hosts into the lead.

The Griffins then slowly  built their advantage to 29-20 on a three pointer from Jack Forth, who hit eight of his ten points in a six minute stretch as the hosts built their advantage. Almost instantly, the Eagles responded with a 24 footer from straight on by Volpe to cut the lead back to six. Mike Johnson came from the blind side to steal the ball from Smith and found Volpe for a lay-up and in just over thirty seconds, the Eagles were back in the game.

The Eagles scored the last five points of the half to go into the locker room down 33-32. The coaching staff felt that the game was moving in the Eagles direction and that they needed to continue to find good shots while eliminating turnovers. The Eagles were careless with the ball in stretches of the first half and finished the half with fourteen giveaways. Volpe had twelve points to lead all scorers at the break, and perhaps more importantly, none of the Eastern principals were in foul trouble.

The second half opened with three straight Griffin baskets an Eastern 30 second timeout. Out of that timeout, the Eagles would outscore their hosts 33-20 the rest of the way. After the two teams turned the ball over, DiMaria found Coleman underneath and, after a solid pump fake, the muscular guard powered home a lay up while getting fouled. he converted the three point play to make the score 39-35 Gwynedd. The teams each scored on their next three possessions with the Griffins hitting a pair of inside baskets and a DelBrocco three, and the Eagles twice posting Malloy and finding Coleman for a short jumper.

After DiMaria cut the deficit to 46-44 with his second three of the day, the Eagles rebounded a DelBrocco miss and had the chance to tie. Mike Johnson secured an offensive rebound on an air ball, but had the ball popped out of his hands with 7 seconds on the shot clock at the three point arc extended on the left side. The Eagles executed a back door lob for Volpe to tie the game at 46.

A jumper from Malloy and a three from Volpe answered baskets from Smith and Forth, and Santiago then tied the game at 51 when he split a pair of free throws with 9:24 remaining in the contest. Neither team would score a field goal until Volpe converted a lay in with just under two minutes to play, but the Eagles converted eight straight foul shots to forge a 59-51 advantage.