ST. DAVIDS, Pa.--Eastern University Men's Basketball rallied in the second half of Saturday's game with the Lancaster Bible College Chargers, pulling within one after trailing by 13 in the second half.

Despite the late rally, the Eagles couldn't overtake the Chargers down the stretch and fell by a final score of 69-64.

Sophomore Tarek Hamzeh led the Eagles with 18 points while Shaquan Turk added 16 and Malcolm Garrison 10. For the Chargers, CJ Dunston also scored 18 points while shooting 9-for-11 including two dunks in transition. Dunston added nine rebounds, three blocks and four steals.

After shooting poorly in the first half (8-for-30) the Eagles improved to 13-for-28 in the second half. Eastern trailed 63-59 with five minutes remaining in the game, but four points from Turk followed by a floater in the lane by freshman Anthony Concepcion brought Eastern within one with 2:07 remaining.

A Dunston jumper bumped LBC's lead back to three with 1:06 remaining. LBC's Dondre Perry had the chance to extend the lead, but missed the first of a 1-and-1 free throw. Turk gathered the rebound and Concepcion hit two free throws on the other end to again bring Eastern within one, 65-64 with 23 seconds to go. The Eagles went for a steal on the inbounds but had to foul. Charger Corey Leonard hit both free throws with 15 seconds remaining making it 67-64. 

Eastern had a chance to hold for the game-tying shot. An inadvertent whistle by a referee gave the Eagles a brief unofficial timeout with 12 seconds remaining and the chance to draw up a play. Eastern got off two 3-pointers on the final possession, but Malcolm Garrison and Tarek Hamzeh's attempts didn't fall.

With the loss, Eastern dropped to 2-3 while Lancaster Bible improved to 2-1. Eastern plays two conference games next week, hosting Wilkes on Wednesday at 8 p.m. and then traveling to Delaware Valley on Saturday.

Box Score