ST.DAVIDS, Pa.– For the second Wednesday in a row, Eastern University Men's Basketball needed to erase a late deficit to win. For the second Wednesday in a row, the Eagles found a shot with time expiring. Tonight, Victor Peña capped a monster second half with a 3-pointer at the buzzer to lift the Eagles (9-7, 4-1 MAC Freedom) to a 64-62 win over the visiting FDU-Florham Devils. Peña scored 18 of his game-high 20 points after intermission.

The two teams entered the game tonight with three-game league winning streaks and in a four-way tie atop the MAC Freedom. The Devils were doing it with defense. They had only won one of the three games where they scored over 75 points. The Eagles, on the other hand, had won five-of-six games where they had scored over 80 points.

The Eagles jumped to a 10-0 lead out of the gate and looked to have the game moving at their pace early. Lincoln Holley hit an open 3-pointer and Austin Duncan, Austin Carroll, and Peña all scored inside baskets in the opening two minutes. The game then slowed to a crawl. The Devils worked the ball deliberately for good shots and did not allow the Eagles to jump out in transition.

Nevertheless, Eastern still held a 17-7 lead on a Duncan 3-pointer with twelve and a half minutes to play in the opening frame. Duncan led all scorers with 13 points at the break. With Peña, Carroll, and Holley going to the bench with two fouls, the Eagles scored only 11 points the rest of the half and clung to a 28-24 lead at intermission.

FDU shot only 1-of-11 from behind the arc and 10-for-36 (27.8%) overall, but the Devils only trailed 28-24 and had set the tempo for the game. Shaquan Turk had only two field goal attempts in 18 minutes.

"Quan was making good basketball decisions," Head Coach Eric McNelley said of his top scorer at the half. "He had five rebounds, three assists, two blocks, and two steals at halftime, but we need to get him involved in the offense more than that." Turk did have a basket waived off on an offensive foul.

The Eagles held the lead for the early part of the second half, but fell behind with just over seven minutes to play and trailed 58-53 when Anthony Mitchell hit a 3-pointer with 4:17 to play.

The Eagles put a pair of three-point plays around an FDU basket to close the gap to 60-59. Peña made the first one on a strong post move. Turk followed that up with soaring drive.

The Devils went up three on a Derek Loehner basket with under two minutes to play. Neither team would score another field goal until Peña's heroic shot with time expiring.  Holley had consecutive 3-pointers rim out, and Mitchell blocked an Austin Carroll attempt with under fifty seconds left.

The Devils ran clock and had an inside look to go up five, but Peña stood strong on defense and grabbed a rebound while being fouled. The 6'6 Dominican entered the second half of this evening's game shooting only 53.4 percent from the foul line. He sunk both, his eighth and ninth of the half, to pull the Eagles to within a point with 14 seconds to play.

"We were going to try for a turnover and then we were going ot have to foul," McNelley said of the timeout. "Ace [Carroll] looked at me because he had four fouls. I said if you have to foul foul, but lets get a steal."

Carroll played good position defense and the FDU ball-handler stepped on the sideline under pressure. Turk had a chance driving to the basket on the inbounds play, but his shot rolled off. The high-scoring senior then hit the floor to tie up a loose-ball rebound and give the Eagles a final chance on the alternate possession. It was his ninth rebound of the game.

"We ran a play with Shaquan curling hard to the basket." McNelley said. "They had to help off on that, and then it came down to Vic hitting a shot. We did not play that great tonight. We made a bunch of mistakes, but we figured out a way to win. I think all the guys feel like we stole one, and we probably did, but in this league you have to do that. We have to play better at Manhattanville on Saturday."

Peña is shooting 10-for-16 from 3-point range this season. He played all 20 minutes in the second half and finished with 20 points and five rebounds. Duncan had 19 points. Turk finished the game with eight points. With those eight points, he passes two players and moves into 9th place on Eastern's career scoring list. He has 1476 points.

This is the first four-game winning streak in MAC Freedom play since the Eagles won five-straight league games in the 2011-12 season.

Led by 16 second-half points from Mitchell, the Devils got 33 points off their bench. Dante Ali added 15 points. FDU shot 4-of-9 from behind the arc in the second half. Peña's final shot was Eastern's only successful long-range effort int he second half.

The Eagles are at Manhattanville on Saturday and will host Delaware Valley at home next Wednesday.