CAMDEN, N.J.--Eastern Men's Basketball battled the Rutgers-Camden Scarlet Raptors down to the wire on Monday night, nearly pulling off a late comeback, but ultimately fell 77-76.

For the Eagles, Monday's road game was the fourth game of the year decided by one basket. The Eagles are 2-2 in those games and are now 3-4 overall on the season.

Eastern trailed by 11 points late in the second-half but pulled within one point with 21 seconds to go. The Scarlet Raptors hit 2-of-4 free throws in the next 15 seconds to take a three-point lead with six seconds left. Eagles' sophomore Malcolm Garrison attempted the tying-basket with 2.8 seconds left, but his shot was off-target. Junior Anthony Parenti coralled the rebound but did not have enough time to kick the ball out for another 3-point attempt. Parenti put back the rebound to make the score 77-76 at the buzzer.

Garrison scored a game-high 20 points while shooting 6-for-18 from the floor and 5-for-7 from the free-throw line. He now leads the Eagles with 13.7 points per game this year. Freshman Shaquan Turk had another strong showing off the bench. He recorded 16 points and six rebounds and shot 55.6 percent from the floor. Junior Anthony Parenti notched a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

The first half featured the Eagles and Raptors tying the score on seven occassions. The Eagles took the largest lead of the first half at 10:29 with a trey by Garrison putting Eastern up by four, 16-12. The Raptors regained the lead and entered halftime up 35-34. Eastern regained the lead 36-35 in its first possession of the second half with a layup by Parenti, but after that score, Rutgers-Camden went on a 17-5 run over the next 7 1/2 minutes. Rutgers-Camden still held on to an 11-point lead with 7:22 remaining in the game. However, the Eagles then went on a run of their own, scoring 19 points in the next seven minutes and holding the Raptors to nine points during that span.

Turk's layup with 21 seconds to go brought the Eagles within one, 75-74. Rutgers-Camden's Marcus Taylor earned free throws on back-to-back possessions, but split both pairs, missing his first free throws of the night and giving the Eagles another chance to tie the game. However, the Eagles ran out of time and fell by the final score of 77-76 in the non-conference game.

Taylor was one of four Scarlet Raptors in double-figures. He finished with 10 points while going 8-for-10 from the free-throw line. Starting forward Alex Smart tallied 11 points with a 5-for-6 night from the stripe. Rutgers-Camden's leading scorers came off their bench as Teon Russell knocked down 8-of-10 free throws to finish with 18 points and John Tatem hit 8-of-10 field goals to land a team-best 19 points.

Eastern fits another non-league game into its schedule this Wednesday when they host Ursinus College at 7 p.m.

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