ST. DAVIDS, Pa. - Eastern Men's Basketball stumbled late down the stretch and was unable to close out visiting FDU-Florham as the Devils managed to escape with an 84-79 overtime victory. Shaquan Turk turned in another outstanding performance scoring a new season high 35 points but couldn't do enough to help the Eagles. 

"We just didn't finish tonight," said Head Coach Eric McNelley. "We battled hard throughout the game but just didn't get the job done when it mattered." 

Eastern (7-7, 1-2 MAC Freedom) got off to a slow start in the first half falling behind quickly after a 13-4 run by FDU-Florham (4-10, 2-1 MAC Freedom) to open the game. Turk then scored eight of the Eagles next thirteen points to cut the deficit to just 19-17 with under ten minutes to play in the first half. At the 9:04 mark was arguably the most exciting play of the entire game. Trailing 19-15 Turk forced a turnover by FDU-Florham's Michael Barber. Turk turned up court and found a streaking Austin Carroll down the left side and threw a great lead pass to him. As the lone Devils defender stepped up to take Carroll, Carroll lobbed a pass up toward to the right side of the rim, and Turk slammed it home for the ridiculous alley-oop. 

Late in the first half FDU-Florham managed to pull away and hold a 15 point, 38-23, lead with under a minute to play. Carroll knocked two free-throws to cut the deficit to 38-25. It looked like Eastern would get out of the half trailing only by 13 if it could hold the Devils scoreless in the final 32 seconds of play. Turk once again stepped up for his team forcing a turnover and racing down court and pulled up from about 30 feet to knock down a buzzer beating 3-pointer to cut FDU-Florham's lead to just ten at 38-28. 

"Those are two outstanding plays," continued McNelley. "He [Turk] is a real special and athletic player and those two plays are a testament to what he can do on the court." 

The Eagles opened up the second half on a 19-9 run coming all the way back to tie the game at 47-47 with just over twelve minutes left to play. The Devils had multiple possession leads three times over the next nine minutes but were unable to hold off Eastern, who came to tie the game at 64-64 before a Malcolm Garrison free throw gave Eastern its first lead since the opening basket of the game. Garrison stretched the Eagles lead to four at 69-65 with just over two and a half minutes to playafter another pari of free throws. 

With just over a minute to play in second half FDU-Florham hit a jumper to give itself a 73-71 lead. On the ensuing Eastern possession, Austin James hit a clutch jump shot to tie the game up at 73-73 with 29 seconds left to play. After forcing a turnover on the Devils final possession, James found Carroll, who raced down the floor to try and hit a game-winning layup, but it was blocked as time expired sending the game into overtime. 

"That was a great play by James," said McNelley. "He was trying to find his shot throughout the game and hit some big shots, but when it mattered, he came through and knocked down a big bucket for us to force overtime." 

In overtime, Turk scored all of Eastern's six points and gave the Eagles the lead on back-to-back possessions, but they were unable to hold on as the Devils knocked down four clutch free throws down the stretch to extend their lead and ultimately seal the game.  

Overall Turk tallied his second double-double of the season scoring 35 points, grabbing 11 rebounds, and adding in three blocked shots while going 11-of 14 from the field shooting (.785) and also going 12-12 from the free throw line. Garrison scored 12 points to round out the Eagles double-digit scoring. 

"It was a great performance by Shaquan tonight," McNelley went on to say. "He fought hard and really gave everything he had to try and win this game for us. It's unfortunate that his effort fell short on the scoreboard because he gave us a great chance to win." 

Derek Leohner led all FDU-Florham scorers with 21 points while Steve Herdman netted 20 points of his own. Veon Lassiter posted a double-double scoring 17 points and totaling 13 rebounds. Donte Ali and Jayson Hughes each scored 12 points.

"We are young, and we have to continue to learn and get better," concluded McNelley. "This a process and tell these guys everyday we have to keep improving as a team and we will win these close games down the stretch. We just have to learn from this game and turn it around for King's on Saturday."   

Eastern will travel to King's College on January 16th for a 3 pm tipoff.