PURCHASE, N.Y.-- Eastern University Men's Basketball scored 51 second-half points to pick up a Freedom Conference win at Manhattanville College. Anthony Parenti led the way with 24 and Malcolm Garrison added 22 as the Eagles (5-14, 3-5 Freedom) picked up their first true road win of the year.

In five previous trips to Kennedy Gymnasium, Eastern University Men's Basketball had never won a game. Only once in those five appearances had Eastern been within ten points of the host Manhattanville Valiants. Eastern's futility in Kennedy Gym had nearly reached mythic proportions. In the first meeting between the two squads in 2008, an Eastern team that qualified for the Freedom Conference playoffs scored just 15 second-half points in a 66-36 loss. Fourteen months later, the Eagles again went stone-cold from the floor in a 52-35 loss.

Eastern's bleak history in Purchase combined with a 15-point home loss to start the Freedom Conference season offered much reason for discouragement for the Eagles as they traveled to Manhattanville today. After a solid, but unspectacular first half, the young Eagles put together their best half of the year to take the game.

Eastern trailed 38-32 at intermission. The host Valiants scored eight of the final ten points in the half and appeared to have all the momentum going to the locker room. Manhattanville guards Colin Campbell and Anthony Maestre hit 10 of 12 first-half shots and combined for 25 points. The rest of the Valiants were only 4-of-13, but they still were at a very respectable 56 percent as a team.  The Eagles had balanced scoring from their five starters for the period and were shooting 45 percent at the break.

Maestre scored his 14th and 15th points on a layup to start the half, but Parenti answered with a short jumper and Garrison hit consecutive 3-pointers to tie the game. The Eagles scored on each of their first five possessions in the second half.

"At the half," Head Coach Nate Stewart said, "We really challenged our guards to do a better job contesting their guards on the defensive end. They did that, and their focus carried over to the second half." Garrison and Parenti combined to shoot 10-of-13 in the second half, and each had 15 points after the break. The Manhattanville duo of Campbell and Maestre made only 4-of-12 for 12 points in the second half.

While the Eastern guards did work on the two main perimeter scorers, the rest of the Manhattanville lineup made only 3-of-16 shots after the break.

After the two teams traded baskets, Dan Werth put the Eagles up for good with five straight points around the five minute mark. The junior forward converted a three-point play and then scored on a nice dish from Anthony Bertolino.  

The Eastern lead was still four as the half neared its midway point. Tyler McGrath then sparked an 8-0 run with two straight transition hoops. The freshman forward beat his defender down the floor for a pass from Dan Werth to put the Eagles up 55-49, he then tipped in a Parenti miss on another fast break chance. McGrath, who only played two minutes in the first meeting between the two teams, finished with 14 points and seven rebounds.

McGrath also spent the day as the primary defender against Manhattanville power forward Jack Bramswig. Bramswig had 21 and 12 in the first meeting in St. Davids. He had only 13 points today.

Ben Connor completed the run with another transition hoop from Werth to make the Eastern lead 12 with 9:31 on the clock.

Manhattanville was in the bonus early in the period and made three straight foul shots to briefly cut the Eastern lead to nine. The Valiants would not get closer.

"That was the best we have moved the ball all year," Stewart stated. "We had 21 assists on 32 baskets. I think we only took one or two tough shots in the last twelve minutes." With good shots, the Eagles shot a great percentage. The Eagles shot 70.4 percent from the floor in the second half and still had six second-chance points. Manhattanville had only one defensive rebound in the final nine minutes. The only 3-pointer the Eagles missed after the intermission came when McGrath was forced to fire up an off-balance attempt to beat the shot clock.

Conner corralled a team-high eight rebounds to go with eight points. Campbell led the Valiants with 20. Garrison and Parenti each reached the 20-point plateau for the third time this season.

The Eagles will look to stretch their winning streak to three when they travel to King's on Wednesday. Eastern topped the Monarchs 70-67 in early January.

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