ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– A rebuilt Eastern University Men's basketball squad went toe-to-toe with the No. 23 Cabrini University Cavaliers in the the Battle of Eagle Road rivalry game, but the visiting Cavaliers pulled away late to keep the Eagles Road trophy with an 82-68 win. The Eagles led 60-57 with six and a half minutes to play before the Cavaliers hit four 3-pointers in a 14-4 run to break the game open.
The two teams played at a frenetic pace throughout the game and neither team led by more than seven points at any point until Deryl Bagwell converted a three-point play with just under three minutes to go in regulation.
Cabrini came into tonights game with much of its scoring core intact. Led by All-American forward Tyheim Monroe, the Cavaliers had 45 points per game returning in just three players. The Eagles, on the other hand, lost a trio of starters to graduation and were going to need to find scoring to replace the nearly 20 points per game scored by Shaquan Turk over the past four seasons.
From the start, it became clear that the Eagles would be a team that got points from a variety of different scorers. Seven different Eastern players scored as the Eagles built a 25-19 lead with eight minutes to play in the first half. Freshman forward
William Blet capped the run with a spectacular one-handed dunk on a lob from Victor Peña.
The Cavaliers answered the run with a 9-0 run to build a 28-25 just inside the five-minute mark. They held that same three-point edge with a 36-33 lead at intermission. Peña led the Eagles with six points and ten rebounds at halftime. Monroe had 10 points and 11 rebounds, but the Eagles held the Cavalier senior to 3-of-10 shooting in the first half. The Eagles were 5-of-12 from 3-point range in the opening half, but made only 6-of-15 from inside the arc against the aggressive and athletic Cavalier defense.
Austin James opened the second half with his first of two second-half 3-point plays to tie the score. To the delight of the capacity crowd, neither team led by more than four points for the first fifteen minutes of the second half. The Eagles worked to extend possessions and worked inside out on offense and the Cavaliers used slashing drives and aggressive offensive rebounding to answer.
A Monroe offensive rebound set up what turned out to be the key play in the game. Monroe battled for a missed 3-pointer with five minutes left and whipped a pass across court to Keith Blassingale for a long 3-pointer. The sophomore guard hit the lengthy shot to put Cabrini up 65-61. Blassingale hit another 3-pointer after an empty possession to stretch the Cabrini lead to seven points and force the Eagles to chase the game. Blassingale, who scored 80 points his entire freshman season, scored 12 of his game-high 19 points in the second half. he was 4-of-9 from behind the arc for the game.
Gabe Perez hd 12 points and five rebounds to join Peña in double-figures. James and
Darius Washington each added nine points. Monroe had 18 points and 22 rebounds for Cabrini.
The Eagles will have only a couple pracitces to prepare for a tough weekend. They will be at Neumann on Saturday and then travel to play at Lehigh University on Saturday.
