MARYVILLE, Tenn.– Eastern University Men's Basketball used a late 3-pointer from Victor Peña to force overtime, but the Eagles (2-1) fell behind early in the extra frame and fell, 79-74, to the Webster College Gorloks (3-1) on the final day of the Maryville Classic.  Darius Washington had 23 points and eight rebounds to lead the Eagles in the loss.

How it Happened:
The Gorloks, who came into the weekend with a win over Washington University, jumped out to a 17-7 lead in the first five minutes of the game before the Eagles responded with a 14-0 run. Draig Ruff was the only Eastern player to score more than a single basket in the burst. Clifton Adams closed out the run with a 3-pointer off a pass from Michael Bowlers.

The Gorloks closed the gap to 26-25 before the Eagles closed out the half with an 11-3 run. Washington his a pair of 3-pointers in the burst and Austin Duncan hit a 3-pointer for the final basket of the half for a 37-28 lead.

Webster scored the first ten points of the second half and pulled ahead briefly, but the Eagles tied the game at 45 on a put-back shot from Ruff. The first year guard repeated the feat less than a minute later when he followed his own shot for a 47-45 lead. The Eagles held the lead and it swelled to five on a three-point play from Michael Bowlers with a little more than seven minutes to play.

The Eagles went without a field goal for a little over four minutes and trailed by four before Duncan hit a 3-pointer from the wing to close the gap to a single point with 2:13 on the clock. Duncan answered a Webster basket with a lay-up with 28 seconds on the clock, but the Eagles had to foul and Webster guard Josh Johnson hit both his free throws to force the Eagles to find a 3-pointer late.

Out of a timeout, the Gorloks smothered both Washington and Duncan, but Ruff found Peña for a good look from the corner. The senior forward delivered with his first made 3-pointer of the year. He is a 41 percent shooter from behind the arc for his career.

Like the first two periods, the Gorloks jumped to the lead in the overtime as well. Eastern fell behind by six early. Washington hit his fifth 3-pointer of the game to pull the Eagles back to a three-point deficit, but the Eagles could not take advantage of a stop and Johnson hit a 3-pointer to put the Gorloks back up six with less than a minute to play.

Peña finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds and Bowlers and Duncan each had 10 points. Johnson led the Gorloks with 23 points on 5-of-7 shooting from behind the arc. Enrique Tankins had 21 and sophomore forward Nigel Wilcox had 13 points, 15 rebounds, and 6 blocked shots.

Coach McNelley Says:
"[It was a] tough loss today. We played another good opponent in Webster and just didn't do enough down the stretch to pull out the win. "

"We did a solid job in the first half and went into the locker room with a nine-point lead but just didn't close the game with the type of effort you need to pull out a win on the backend of a back-to-back. We allowed them to steal momentum early in the second half and just couldn't find stops when we needed them."

"We will learn from our game today. We have a long road trip tonight and will begin to prep for Albright on Tuesday. This was a good weekend for our group to be together and play a pair of quality opponents."

Up Next:
The Eagles will host the Albright College Lions on Tuesday. The Lions (1-3) have played a daunting stretch of games to start the year as well. They have lost close games to Franklin and Marshall and Ithaca and lost by 13 to Randolph-Macon.