WILKES-BARRE, Pa.--The last time King's College and Eastern University Men's Basketball faced each other, Eastern held off King's by three points in overtime after a late charge. On Wednesday, the Eastern Eagles hung with the King's Monarchs and came close to shutting the gap in the final minutes, but King's defended its home court.

Eastern fell a game behind King's in the Freedom Conference playoff hunt with an 80-74 loss. King's and Eastern entered the night with a 5-5 record in the Freedom Conference. With the loss, Eastern slipped into a tie for fifth with Wilkes. While the loss hurts, the Eagles are still alive with three regular season games to go.

Eagles' sophomore guard Austin Carroll scored 15 points off the bench for the second game in a row. Carroll shot 5-for-8 from the floor.

Shaquan Turk added 14 for the Eagles, knocking down two 3-pointers in the second half and going 8-for-8 from the free-throw line. He added a team-high six rebounds.

Austin James scored 11 points, knocking down three treys, including a 3-pointer with 26 seconds left that pulled Eastern within three points. Jonathan Tolber and Malcolm Garrison each contributed nine points.

Despite King's shooting 50 percent from the floor and doubling-up Eastern in the rebound category, 46-23, Eastern knocked down 10 more threes than King's to keep the game close.

After Eastern tied the game at 28-28 with 1:49 left in the first half, King's went on a 19-5 tear to close out the half and start the next period.

The Eagles responded with three 3-pointers, back-to-back treys by Turk and  another one by Tarek Hamzeh.The Eagles shot 10-for-20 from long distance in the second half.

Treys by Tolber and James drew Eastern within one point 52-51 with 10:11 remaining. Another run by King's over the next five minutes, 14-3, stretched the Monarchs' lead to 11.

The Eagles hung around and narrowed the Monarchs' lead to five points with a layup by Carroll with 35 seconds to go. King's only made 5-of-10 free throws in the final 45 seconds to keep giving Eastern opportunities to cut away at the lead.

James knocked down a 3-pointer from the wing with 26 seconds left that pulled Eastern within three, 77-74. However, the Eagles couldn't get any closer and fell by a final score fo 80-74.

Eastern plays at Manhattanville College on Saturday at 3 p.m.

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