ST. DAVIDS, Pa.--Eastern Men's Basketball improved to 2-5 in the Freedom Conference with a 68-65 win over the Wilkes University Colonels.

The Eagles never trailed in the victory and led by 10 with five minutes to go. However, Wilkes crept to within two points when Wilkes' Tyler Breznitsky hit a 3-pointer with 26 seconds to go. After Eastern's Malcolm Garrison sank two free throws, Wilkes' Pat Furst came down the court to finish a layup with 14 seconds remaining.

With their lead at 67-65, the Eagles earned two more free throws on a deliberate foul. However, both of Ben Connor's free throws rimmed out. As the clock waned into the final seconds Wilkes' Breznitsky heaved another three, attempting to take the lead, but was off the mark this time. Eagles' guard Anthony Bertolino grabbed the defensive rebound and hit a free throw with 0.3 seconds left to seal the 68-65 victory.

Eastern's Anthony Parenti scored a game-high 20 points, shooting 7-for-13 from the floor. Parenti leads the Eagles this season with 11.4 points per game. Parenti also pulled down seven rebounds.

Freshman guard Malcolm Garrison contributed 14 points while senior Ben Connor added 10 points and six rebounds.

The Colonels were led by Tyler Breznitsky's 19 points and Pat Furst's 18 points.

The Eagles controlled the boards, out-rebounding the Colonels by 11, 42-31, which turned out to be the number of rebounds Eagles' center Kyle Malloy grabbed. Eastern collected 18 offensive rebounds and held Wilkes to seven second-chance boards. Wilkes first offensive rebound didn't come until 10:29 left in the second half.

While the Eagles earned 39 attempts from the charity stripe compared to 16 attempts for the Colonels, the Eagles struggled to sink the freebies, hitting just 19 of their 39 attempts (48.7 percent). The Colonels shot 13-for-16 (81.3 percent).

The Eagles' bench contributed 18 points in 72 minutes of play while the Colonels' bench was held to two points over 62 minutes of combined play.

Eastern travels to Manhattanville College on Saturday for a 3 p.m. game. 

Box Score