The Eastern Eagles concluded the 2014-15 season with a 77-75 victory at DeSales University. The Eagles went 10-15 on the season and 6-8 in conference, finishing two games out of a Freedom Conference postseason spot. DeSales took the third-seed in the conference tournament with a 9-5 league record.

Turk scored a game-high 21 points to go along with his 11 rebounds, three assists and two blocks. Turk leads the Freedom Conference in scoring with 17.6 points per game, is eighth in rebounding with 6.5 per game and is sixth in blocks (1.3 bpg). In 13 conference games this season, he's averaging 20.3 ppg and 7.5 rpg.

With 1.7 seconds remaining and the game knotted at 75-75, Eastern's Austin James inbounded the ball from the left sideline. The Eagles had Turk and Tarek Hamzeh set screens at the elbows for Malcolm Garrison. Turk's 6-foot-7 defender, forward Travis Bryan, switched and followed Garrison leaving Cody Deal, listed at 6-foot-3 on Turk. Turk cut back door on the switch and James lobbed the inbounds pass across the court, over Deal and to a leaping Turk on the right block. Turk didn't have the positioning to throw down a game-winning alley-oop, but he did gather the pass, land and then have enough time to go up and shoot over Deal. As Turk's shot swished through the net, the game's final buzzer went off. [Click here for video of the shot] 

Turk was one of four Eagles in double-figures Saturday. Malcolm Garrison scored 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting, Austin Carroll went 6-for-13 to finish with 13 points and Tarek Hamzeh knocked down 4-of-6 3-point attempts to finish with 12 points.

DeSales also had four players in double-figures: Kuity Slanger (20), Aaron Burton (17), Cody Deal (16) and Travis Bryan (12).

Eastern past few games had started with the Eagles falling behind by double-digits in the first half which forced them to go on a furious comeback only to fall short in the final seconds. This game, the Eagles avoided the first half malaise and led DeSales for nearly all of the final 11 minutes of the half. However, the Eagles missed the opportunity to take the last shot of the half and the Bulldogs snuck in a layup before the first-half buzzer, taking a 39-38 lead into the locker room.

The Eagles came out flat in the first three minutes of the second half and soon trailed the Bulldogs by 10 with 16:47 left in the game. Layups by Turk and Garrison followed by a Hamzeh trey pulled Eastern within three, 50-47. DeSales' lead soon reach seven, but Carroll slashed through the lane and had a crafty finish at the hoop to pull Eastern within five with 13:35 to go. The Eagles still trailed but were able to keep it a one or two possession game for the next 10 minutes.

Hamzeh buried back-to-back 3-pointers to finally give Eastern a lead at 75-73 with 2:35 to go. Bulldogs' Slanger tied the game with a layup a minute later. The Eagles couldn't take the lead on the next possession and DeSales recovered the defensive board.

The Eagles came away with a big defensive break as Burton missed a jumper in the paint late in the shot clock countdown. Garrison muscled away the rebound and pushed the ball up court. Turk went for the win with a pull-up jumper from the elbow with six seconds left, but the shot rimmed out. Carroll and Hamzeh rushed in for the rebound and prevented DeSales from recovering. The ball glanced off a Bulldog and out of bounds, setting the stage for the buzzer-beating shot.

The Eagles, a very young squad for the second year in a row, show a lot of promise for next year. They will have to do it without senior leader Anthony Parenti, but with everyone else potentially returning next winter, 2015-16 could be a very exciting season for the Eagles.

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