ST. DAVIDS, Pa.--Eastern University Men's Basketball survived its first foray in overtime this season, collecting an important Freedom Conference win over the King's College Monarchs 66-63.

The Monarchs had charged back from down nine points with 2:19 to go to force overtime. In the last possession of overtime, down by three points, Monarch Tim O'Shea heaved a shot from behind halfcourt and sank it. However, the shot attempt was released just after the buzzer sounded and did not count.

Eastern improved to 6-9 on the year with the win and are 2-2 in the Freedom Conference. King's, now equal with Eastern in the conference, dropped to 9-6 overall.

Eastern had four players finish with double digits. Shaquan Turk led the Eagles with 16 points and eight rebounds. Tarek Hamzeh scored 14 points, Austin James added 12 and Anthony Parenti added 10. James and Hamzeh each hit three 3-pointers and the Eagles hit nine 3-pointers total. Parenti, a senior, said he thought it was a huge win for the team to be able to get back to .500 in the conference.

After a dismal 7-for-28 (25 percent) shooting from the floor in the first half, the Eagles rallied to shoot 10-for-20 (50 percent) in the second half.

After a back-and-forth first half with four lead changes and four ties, the Eagles found themselves down six going into the locker room and then down by eight a minute into the new period. A 9-2 run after that sparked by a Turk jump shot put Eastern briefly back in the lead. Soon, tied at 38-38 the Eagles went on another run, this time an 11-2 run that lasted nearly three minutes.

The Eagles maintained a lead of six to nine points over the next eight minutes, but couldn't put the Monarchs away.

Freshman guard Anthony Concepcion hit two free throws to put Eastern up by nine points with 2:19 remaining and it seemed very likely that the Eagles had the win in the bag. However, on the next possession, King's guard Nate Oliver hit the team's second 3-pointer of the game, cutting Eastern's lead to six.

The Eagles were then whistled for offensive fouls on three of their final four possessions. King's capitalized on the Eastern turnovers and tied the game at 59-59 with 39 seconds left on an open layup by Chris Fazzini. King's had the chance to win the game at the end of regulation after Tom Heston gathered an offensive rebound under the basket. The Eagles defense collapsed around him and he was unable to get off a good putback. Eastern went the final 4:38 of regulation without a field goal (the 3-pointer from Concepcion was the only field goal of the final nine minutes of regulation for the Eagles) and the parched state remained through the five minutes of overtime. 

While the Eagles' struggled to finish from the floor, they got the job done from the charity stripe, canning 23-of-28 free throws in the game and 7-of-8 free throws in overtime. Concepcion, who scored all nine of his points in the final ten minutes of play, went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line in overtime. He put Eastern up 63-60 with 24 seconds to go.

After King's missed a 3-pointer, Hamzeh grabbed the defensive rebound with 10 seconds to go and took a hard foul to the face. Hamzeh reacted and was given a technical foul. Dan Rutecki split a pair of foul shots for the Monarchs. Hamzeh, an 87 percent foul shooter, then knocked down a pair to put Eastern up four. After the game, Hamzeh called it the craziest game he'd ever played in.

King's then scored a layup with two seconds left and drew the foul. The Monarchs missed intentionally, hoping for a tip in to tie the game, but the miss didn't hit the rim and was a dead ball. The Eagles nearly turned the ball over on the inbounds, but Parenti drew the foul and hit a free throw to put Eastern up 66-63 with 0.4 seconds left. The Monarchs drew up a play where they passed it out of bounds on the baseline then launched a pass to Tim O'Shea at halfcourt. According to NCAA rules, there has to be at least 0.4 seconds to catch and shoot. O'Shea caught the ball over his shoulder and sent up a prayer. His shot banked in, but he had released it a split-second after the buzzer had already gone off.

The Eagles continue conference play on Wednesday night, 6 p.m., when they host the Manhattanville College Valiants.

Box Score