Eastern University Men's Basketball improved to 7-4 in Freedom Conference play with a dramatic 61-60 home win over Manhattanville College. The win puts the Eagles into second place in the league with three games to play. Alex Nelson scored 18 points, including two straight three-pointers late, to lead the Eagles in the win. Despite holding a seven point lead with thirty seconds to play, the Eagles needed a last second free throw from Collin Whipple to win the game.

Manhattanville won 52-35 win in Purchase earlier in the year, but they needed a win today to keep their playoff hopes alive. They scored six points in a minute to grab a 47-45 lead with 4:33 to play. Nelson then made a play at the defensive end with a steal under the basket and converted at the other end with a three-pointer on a Whipple pass. The first year forward then made the lead 51-47 with his second three just seconds later after Martin Soaries blocked an inside attempt. Chris Myers found Nelson on the right wing in transition. With 2:30 to play, Soaries pushed the Eastern lead to six on a contested jumper from the top of the key. 

The Eagles looked to be comfortably in control, and they pushed the lead to 57-50 as Myers hit a pair of free throws with 43 ticks on the clock. Then things started to unravel. Glen Rodriguez cut the deficit to five with a dunk, and Manhattanville was forced to foul Soaries. The sophomore shoots 77% from the line for the year, but he missed the front end and committed a foul after the miss. 

Manhattanville then missed the front end of a one and one opportunity, but a loose ball foul on the rebound sent Angelo Laroche to the line. The Valiant senior led his team with 19 on the day, but he missed the first of two. He converted the second to pull Manhattanville to within four. An Eastern turnover gave Manhattanville the ball back, and DeVon Barnett went with aggression to the basket and converted the three point play. 

Myers buried both his free throws to bump the Eastern lead back to three with 13 seconds to play. The Valiants pushed the ball into the offensive end and were able to get a long look from three, but it rimmed out. Eastern was called for another foul on the inbound play, and Laroche made his two free throws to close the gap to 59-58 with just over six seconds to play. Manhattanville then sent Myers to the line. The Eastern senior made the first, but his second rimmed out and the visitors took a timeout right in front of their bench with 1.8 on the clock. 

Out of the break, Laroche set a baseline screen for a shooter and slipped the screen to the basket. Jay Ferriere put the lob right near the basket and Laroche finished with a second to play to tie the score with one second to play. The Eagles called timeout, and in a game that had already seen a half-court shot to end the first half by Lamar Glass, one second seemed like plenty of time to find a shot. 

Myers took the ball from the official and sprinted left on the baseline with a Manhattanville defender right in front of him. As he ran to his left Whipple took his spot on the baseline and Myers reversed field and raced the other way. Whipple held his ground on the screen and the ensuing collision earned him a trip to the line and a chance to end the game. Whipple made the first. Head Coach Matt Nadelhoffer then told his sophomore guard to miss the second one on purpose to end the game. Nadelhoffer said of the final minute of play, "We didn't close the game very well, and we will look at our execution down the stretch, but I knew that Collin would stay set and take the contact if it was there. This is a big win for us."

The Eagles led for most of the first half before Manhattanville closed the frame with a 9-1 run. The Valiants started the run when Jeffrey Ventura hit a three at the three minute mark to tie the game. Rodriguez then made a free throw, and Trevoy Pointer put the Valiants up 26-23 with a minute to play on an inside basket. Nelson, who led all scorers at half with 11, split a pair of free throws with under 4 seconds to play before Glass closed the period with a mid-court heave.Manhattanville shot just 38% for the period, but took the lead in large part because of Eastern carelessness with the ball. The Eagles committed 14 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes. They took just 17 shots to Manhattanville's 33.

Manhattanville built their lead to seven four minutes into the second half on a Laroche run-out, but Eastern chipped away and baskets from Myers, Eddie Mbanda and Soaries helped the Eagles to trim the deficit to 37-36 with just under 13 minutes to play. The Eagles finally drew level at 41-41 on consecutive baskets from Paul Trusty. The junior forward finished with five points and six rebounds in a season-high 17 minutes. Nadelhoffer said of Trusty's contribution, "Paul made some big plays for us. He gave us four extra possessions with offensive rebounds, and I thought he did a nice job defensively. With the foul trouble we had, we needed Paul to step up."

The Eastern staff then made the decision to go small and Whipple took advantage of a match-up to hit consecutive jumpers, but the Valiants answered with a quick 6-0 run to set up the end of the game. Soaries finished with 15 points and seven rebounds, and Whipple added eleven. Pointer joined Laroche in double-figures with twelve. The Eagles finished the game shooting 49% from the floor. In the earlier meeting in Purchase, the Eagles hit just 27% of their shots. 

It is the second straight year that the two teams have split the season series. The win, combined with a King's loss to DeSales, gives the Eagles a half-game edge over King's and Misericordia. Those two schools will play each other on Tuesday. Eastern travels to FDU-Florham on Tuesday before hosting Wilkes, and Delaware Valley to close out the regular season.