ST. DAVIDS, Pa – Eastern Men's Basketball overcame a 15 point deficit to claim a key, 73-68, victory over the Juniata College Eagles Saturday afternoon. Shaquan Turk scored a season-high 30 points in 39 minutes played to help the Eagles emerge with the win.

"We did a great job closing out this game down the stretch," said Head Coach Eric McNelley. "We knew going into it they were a good team and that we needed to battle. We had to be able to become both mentally and physically tough to close out games and we did that today."

With 4:31 left to play in the first half Juniata (11-3) held a 15 point lead over Eastern (7-6), 35-20. Austin Carroll stepped to the free-throw line for the Eagles and knocked down a pair of free-throws to help chip away at the Juniata lead. On the next three Eastern possessions, Turk scored seven straight points to help pull Eastern within eight at 35-27 with under two minutes left to play in the half.

Turk then closed out the half on back-to-back possessions for the Eagles hitting baskets to make the score 35-34 heading into the locker room. Eastern had managed to close out the half on a 14-0 run in which Turk scored nine points.

"We knew if we sat back like we did in the first half, when we got down fifteen, and let them see what they wanted they would pick us apart," continued McNelley. "And to their credit they did. Once we made that adjustment and got back to what we worked on, we got right back in this game."

In the opening, four minutes of the second half Juniata seemed to find its offensive rhythm again and jumped out to a 45-40 lead. However, Eastern went on a 10-1 run of its own sparked by a Turk layup and capped off wit back-to-back 3-pointers from Anthony Concepcion to go up 50-46.

Juniata came right back though with an 11-2 run of their own and took a 57-52 lead with just over seven minutes left to play in the game. Turk once again put the team on his back tallying seven straight points for the Eagles to tie the game at 59-59. Austin James then knocked down a clutch 3-pointer to extend Eastern's lead to 62-59. Turk helped close out the game hitting six consecutive free-throws down the stretch to seal the win for the Eagles.

"He [Turk] is a tremendous athlete," said McNelley. "I challenged him in Miami to become a leader, to be vocal, to play hard, and not take plays off. He's not going to come out of the game for a little breather; we are going to ride him. He stepped up to the challenge today and kept looking at me saying 'I am okay' and I believed him and it worked out."

Turk finished the game as Eastern's only double-digit scorer with 30 points, eight rebounds, and two blocks. He went 7-of-12 from the field shooting (.583) and 15-of-16 from the free-throw line.

Marcus Lee led all Juniata scorers with 18 points while Brandon Martinazzi netted 14 points. Seth Brewer and Justin Fleming rounded out the double-digit scoring each netting ten points.

"We are a very capable team when we give an effort like we did today," concluded McNelley. "We are 7-6 and can build off a win like this heading into conference play. We need to build off the physicality and toughness we are trying to exert."  

Eastern hosts FDU-Florham January 13th at 8 pm.