LEXINGTON, Va.– A short-handed Eastern University men's basketball squad fell 85-76 at Washington & Lee University in the first game of the W & L Holiday Tournament.
Shaquan Turk led the Eagles, who played without starting center Victor Peña, with 27 points.
Down 69-57 with six minutes to play, the Eagles erased a 12-point deficit with a 12-0 run over a two-minute stretch to tie the game at 69-69 with four minutes left. The momentum did not hold. The host Generals re-established their lead with a 14-to-2 run over the next three minutes and held on to claim the nine point win. Clayton Murtha sparked the W & L rebound with a contested 17-foot fallaway jumper. The junior post player finished with a game-high 29 points and now sits at 999 for his career.
The two teams were tied at 30 at the intermission. The home team, however, owned the early part of the second half. In the second half, the Generals shot 62.1 percent from the floor and scored 55 points. The Eagles matched the Generals out of the gate in the second half, but four consecutive free throws with 14 minutes left opened up a one-possession game and the Eagles were forced to chase the game.
The Eagles closed the gap to three on a Turk put-back, but the Generals scored nine points in a little over a minute to build what seemed to be an insurmountable lead. Andy Kleinlein hit one of his three second-half 3-pointers to start the run. Kleinlein finished with 24 points
The Eagles (5-5) had not played since Dec. 20th and were looking to snap a two-game skid.
Turk led the Eagles with nine points in the first five minutes, but the host Generals slowed the pace of the game and limited Turk to only a pair of shots in the final 13 minutes of the first half. The Eagles connected on 6-of-12 3-pointers to counteract the inside scoring of the Generals. Murtha took advantage of Peña's absence and scored 15 first-half points in the paint.
Lincoln Holley finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds for his third double-double of the year.
Austin Duncan scored 16 points off the bench. Eastern, led by Turk's 9-of-9 effort shot 16-of-17 from the foul line in the game.
The Eagles will play at 2:00 pm in the Consolation Game of the W & L Holiday Classic against either St. Mary's of Maryland or William Paterson University.
