the nationally known chicken restaurant closed. It was the second time on the road trip that the Eagles could not buy a bucket. The ice-cold Eagles scored just four second-half field goals as they dropped their Freedom Conference opener at Manhattanville College.

The host Valiants forged a 32-21 lead in a physical first half as Eastern failed to take full advantage of their inside strength early as they shot just 7-12 from the foul line. Eastern did not fare much better from the field as they connected on an anaemic  7-20 for the first half.

Nothing could have prepared the Eastern staff for the cold spell that started the second half. Manhattanville started out of the gates with a 19 -5 run to push their advantage to 27.

A brief spurt of defensive energy and come creative play-making from Carlos Pujols briefly cut the host's advantage down to 20, but a late Manhattanville run pushed the final margin to 66-36.

Eastern University Head Coach Matt Nadelhoffer commented  on the day saying, “There is no way to look at it any differently, we were not good tonight. We failed to execute in so many ways. This was not the way we wanted to get started for the year, but we have confidence that our young team can bounce back.”

Pujols was the only Eastern player to reach double figures. He connected on all four of his field goal attempts to finish with 10 points.

The Eagles return to action on Saturday with another league road game at Wilkes University.

Box Score