ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– After struggling through a sluggish first half, Eastern University Men's Basketball shot 55 percent from the floor in the second half and pulled away to a  73-69 MAC Freedom win over the visiting Misericordia University Cougars. Austin James scored 18 of his team-high 21 points in the second half to lead the Eagles.

Eastern (11-9, 6-3 MAC Freedom) came into the game on a two-game skid in league play, and the Eagles struggled out of the gates against a Cougar team that sat one spot above them in the league standings. Misericordia (11-9, 6-3 MAC Freedom) used a 20-to-0 run over an eight minute stretch in the first half to build a 23-7 lead with eight and a half minutes to play in the period. The Eagles ground their way to within range with better offensive possessions, but the Cougars still led 30-25 at the half.


Eastern shot just 21 percent (3-for-14) from behind the arc and 27.5 percent overall, but they held the Cougars under 30 percent from the floor in the first half as well.


"It was simple," Head Coach Eric McNelley said when asked what he said to his team at halftime. "We looked at the stats, and we were both in a bad spot offensively. We knew we had that bad stretch that rattled us, and once we made that adjustment, we were only down five. I told the guys, college basketball is won by teams that are mentally tough and physically tough. I challenged them to attack the glass  with everything, and we would have the advantage. We knew that our cold shooting from behind the arc would correct itself once we started playing with aggressiveness and confidence."

The Eagles owned the glass in the second half. Victor Peña had ten of his game-high 18 rebounds after the intermission and Eastern had a 25-12 edge in rebounds. That, coupled with 9-of-12 shooting from behind the arc should have been enough to pull away from the visitors.

The Cougars, however, did not blink when the Eagles used a 9-to-0 run to build a 50-40 lead with just under 12 minutes to play. They answered with a 12-to-1 run to take the lead and force an Eastern timeout.

Out of the timeout, the Eagles ran a play for Gabe Perez to get an open look, and the sophomore forward put away his only 3-point attempt of the game to put the Eagles back up and to start a quick eight-point burst. Darius Washington hit another 3-pointer and Peña made two free throws to put the Eagles up 59-52 with five minutes to play.

The Eastern lead ballooned to nine points after a 3-pointer from James and lay-up against the press by Perez. Even that lead, however was not safe.

The Cougars got a three-point play from Noah Rivera, and then Stone McCreary cut the deficit to 64-61 with a 3-pointer from the wing.

 The lead was still three points when Anthony Concepcion found James for a 3-pointer with 49 seconds on the clock. Even then, the Cougars refused to lay down. McCreary answered with another 3-pointer, his fifth of the game, to make it a three-point game with forty seconds to play.

Misericordia elected to play for a stop rather than foul, but James hit a jumper late in the shot clock for a five point edge with ten seconds to play.

"It was a huge game by Austin James on both ends of the floor," McNelley said. "He had to try to stay in from of [Jason] Kenny at the defensive end and did a really good job with that and made some huge ones down the stretch." In the final five minutes, James had a rebound, and assist and eight points on three shots.

Tré Fields hit a 3-pointer with five seconds left to close the gap to 71-69, and the Cougars fouled Concepcion. The senior guard, who has missed a ton of time with injury and who last scored a point on Dec. 2, walked to the other end for a one-and-one and calmly sunk both shots.

"Anthony gave us a whole different dimension out there tonight," McNelley said. "When Chap got the fouls, he was able to come in and see the floor, push the tempo and get us into good spots." Concepcion finished with two points, three assists, and a key steal in 11 minutes.

The win lifts the Eagles into a tie with the Cougars for the third spot with five games remaining in the regular season. Eastern has another critical league test at King's on Saturday. The Monarchs are alone in fifth in the standings.

Peña finished with 12 points, and Washington had 13. Fields had a game-high 23, McCreary had 17, and Kenny finished with 12 for the Cougars.

"This was a huge win for us tonight," McNelley concluded. "We had Vic on the boards, we made shots down the stretch and came from behind against a team that has been there. We now have to make suer that we build on this and put together a good game against a very different type team on Saturday."