Eastern Men's Basketball downed PAC rival Neumann College, 72-63, in a key mid-season match-up. Brent Williams finished with 13 points, nine rebounds, and four assists in 25 minutes to help the Eagles hold off a charging Knight squad.

Coach Nadelhoffer said of his team, "Brent was big for us, he made a huge jump shot with four minutes to go, and he had some enormous rebounds in traffic in the second half to help us get the ball back. We won the battle on the boards, and were able to hold on for the game." Eastern out-rebounded their visitors 41-34 and made enough free throws down the stretch to win.

Neumann held the lead for most of the erratically paced first half. The game could not decide whether it was going to be an up-and-down track meet or a grind-it-out half-court affair. Both teams shot for a high percentage in the opening frame, but the game never established a regular rhythm as the Knights showed patience at the offensive end when they were not able to score in transition.

Eastern took their second lead of the game, and the lead for good on a fast break bucket from Matt Flanagan with just over two minutes to play in the half. The Eastern pressure defense had forced turnovers throughout the half, but in the closing minutes, those turnovers turned into points. A 10-2 run lifted the Eagles to a 40-33 lead at the break.

Flanagan closed out the half with a jumper on a nice pass from Williams to give him a game-high 13 halfway through. Daryl Leegwater, who finished the game with 13 points and six boards, looked strong in the opening half with nine points and a pair of rebounds off the bench.

The second half saw the Eagles answer every Neumann surge with a counter-surge of their own. After the Knights scored a pair of three-pointers from Derahn Patrick and Eli Hitchens to open the half, Eastern responded with three baskets in forty seconds. Danny Miller scored in the paint. David Volpe then ripped a clean steal in the press and scored an easy basket, and Miller found a cutting Reels for another hoop to make it 46-39 with 17 minutes to play.

The Knights again cut the lead to at 46-45, but Miller and Reels again responded with baskets. The visitors cut the lead to 50-48 on a Mike Hitchens basket with 14 minutes to play. That was as close as they would come.

Matt Malloy, who has historically played very well against Neumann, connected on his only three point attempt of the game on a nice kick-out from Leegwater in the post to stretch the lead to five. In a very efficient effort, the senior forward finished with 11 points, five rebounds, and three assists on five shots from the field and 2-2 from the foul line.

Williams Steps Up Down the Stretch 

With ten minutes to play, Williams began to make his presence felt. The senior point guard from Easton, PA, collected six rebounds and scored eight points down the stretch. With four minutes to play, the Eagles pushed their lead to 69-59 on Williams jumper with the shot clock running down.

Senior forward Mike Johnson collected four of his seven rebounds in the last five minutes of the game. Na'Sheed Linton led a balanced Neumann attack with 13 points and five assists. He was joined in double-figures by Patrick and Eli Hitchens with 12 and 11 points respectively. DJ Fritz had nine points and eight assists.

The Eastern bench, led by Williams, Malloy, and Leegwater, outscored their counterparts from Neumann 40-10. Flanagan finished with a game-high 15 points and Miller pitched in with nine points and five boards.

Nadelhoffer was pleased with the intensity his players brought to the defensive end of the floor and with the contribution of his bench for the game. He said, "This is a big win for us, but now we have to go on the road for a pair of long trips before we come back home to play Cabrini. We will need to be very focused in those games to try to keep the momentum going." 

The Eagles (6-8, 3-3) move into fifth in the conference standings a half game behind the Cabrini Cavaliers. The Eagles  return to action at Marywood University this Thursday night before traveling to Centenary on Saturday. Both those games can be heard live through the PAC website.