MIAMI – Eastern University Men's Basketball saw its five-game winning streak snapped with an 89-72 loss to Eastern Connecticut State Warriors (5-5) in the the Hoop MIA D3 Holiday Shootout. Shaquan Turk finished with a game-high 33 points, but the Warriors shot 54 percent from the floor as a team and had 12 different players score to earn the win.

The Eagles (5-3) came into this evening's game, their first since last Saturday's win at Ursinus, on an nine day break for exams. The Warriors, meanwhile, shook off their rust in the first day of the tournament. The two teams played evenly for the first 16 minutes of the first half. Turk went to the bench with his second personal foul with the Eagles leading 32-30 with four and a half minutes to play. He had 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the floor.

The Warriors closed out the half on a 12-to-2 run to go to the locker room up 42-34. Victor Peña was the only other Eastern player to make multiple field goals in the first half. He had seven points. The Warriors, meanwhile, had ten different players score. Tarchee Brown had eleven to lead Eastern Connecticut at the half.

The second half started as the first half ended. Eastern Connecticut built a 55-38 lead in the opening three and a half minutes. From there, the Warriors never grew the lead to 20, but only once did the Eagles cut the lead to less than ten. Turk hit a pair of free throws with about three minutes left to close the gap to 80-71. Eastern Connecticut again answered with a 9-1 run to close out the game.

In the second half, the Eagles shot just 28 percent from the floor and a woeful 2-of-10 from three-point range. The Eagles were able to stay with in range with 20-of-22 shooting from the foul line. Turk made 11-of-13 free throws in the second half.

Turk scored his 33 points on 8-of-14 from the floor and 15-of-20 from the foul line. This is the fifth time in his career that he has scored 30 or more points in a game.

For  the six  Eagles from South Florida, this evening was a home game. Peña with 13 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Austin James finished with eight points. Brown led the Warriors with 24 points. Brown, a junior, reached the 1000 point plateau for his career early in the second half.

Led by Hugh Lindo's 13 points and 13 rebounds the Eastern Connecticut bench outscored Eastern's reserves by a 40-15 margin. Lindo broke Eastern Connecticut's career rebounding mark with his 1037th career rebound early in the second half. The Warrior reserves made 15-of-22 (68.2%) of their shots from the floor. 

Coming into the tournament, Head Coach Eric McNelley knew that he was not giving his team an easy road. Eastern Connecticut won 18 games last year and returned Brown, Lindo, and 6'11 center Danny Canny.

The task does not get any easier for Eastern tomorrow. The Eagles (5-3) will play No. 18 Susquehanna at 8 PM before breaking for Christmas. Susquehanna looked sharp in an 82-65 win over LaGrange on the opening day of the tournament.