MIAMI SHORES, Fla. – Less than 15 hours after falling in a 94-foot game to Moravian, Eastern University Men's Basketball fell behind early and was never able to fully grind back into the game in a  71-56 loss to the Penn State Behind Lions in their final game at the Third Annual HoopMIA D3 Holiday Shootout.

The Lions (9-2) made 8-of-18 first half 3-pointers and used stout half-court defense to limit the Eagles to only 12-of-29 shooting overall to lead 40-27 at the intermission. Eastern made only 2-of-11 from behind the arc.

In contrast to the game, the night before, the Eagles had only seven first-half turnovers, but the Lions did convert those miscues into nine points. Behrend, meanwhile, had only four turnovers in the opening frame.

"This would have been a tough team to play with a week to prepare," Head Coach Eric McNelley said after the game. "They are very well-coached and the compete on every possession. We were able to a better job getting into the post in the second half, but they were able to keep the game at their pace."

The Eagles shot only slightly better in the second half but were able to do a better job defending the 3-point line. They trimmed the lead to 52-46 on a Clifton Adams lay-up with seven and a half minutes to play, Austin Duncan took a charge on the next possession to give the Eagles a chance to close the gap further, but they went two possessions without a point and the Lions put a 10-4 run on to stretch the lead back to 12 points.

Victor Peña was the only Eastern player in double-figures. He had 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. PSU-Behrend's Dan Wanker made 4-of-7 3-pointers to lead all scorers with 18 points.

Eastern will break for Christmas and will return to action in MAC Freedom play at home against DeSales on Jan. 3.