ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Eastern University Men's Basketball shot 50 percent from the floor and never trailed in the second half on the way to an 86-79 Senior-Day win over the visiting Delaware Valley University Aggies. The win is the ninth-consecutive home win for the Eagles (14-10, 9-4 MAC Freedom) and puts them in a three-way tie for second in the league with a game to play.

Before the start of the game, the program recognized its four seniors and their families for their contributions. Antonio Chapman, Brett Wolf, Anthony Concepcion, and Austin James were all in the starting line up for a game against a team that beat Eastern by 21 points in January.

The positive emotion of the day led to a very entertaining open to the game. Wolf brought tremendous energy to his first career start and scored eight points, grabbed a pair of rebounds and blocked a shot in his nine minutes to start the game. With each play, he made, Wolf brought the home crowd to its feet in celebration.

Even with that energy, the Eagles still trailed 30-27 with eight minutes left in the half.  Game Perez hit a 3-pointer on a good skip pass from James to spark what would prove to be a decisive 15-to-4 run. Jordan Johnson had five points and a pair of assists in the burst. The junior forward finished the game with 12 points and four rebounds in his first action back off an injury suffered a couple weeks ago.

Eastern ended the first half on a 6-to-0 run to lead 48-39 at the break.

"It was great to see our guys come out with good energy," Head Coach Eric McNelley said after the game. "Brett has been important in our program. He got us going tonight. Even though we shot pretty well in the first half, the game was still in question, and we needed a good second-half effort to pull away."

The Aggies (5-19, 3-10 MAC Freedom) made several little runs in the second half, but each time, the Eagles had an answer. That answer, more often than not, came from either Chapman or Darius Washington. Chapman had 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the second half and Washington had 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting. Chapman had 19 points for the game and Washington had 17.

The Aggies strongest run of the second half trimmed the Eastern lead to 77-73 with 3:40 on the clock. Washington hit his fourth 3-pointer of the game and 72nd of the season on a  good feed from Victor Peña to push the lead back to seven points. When the Aggies made three free throws over a pair of possessions to trim the deficit to 80-76, Washington hit a 15-footer while being fouled. He made the foul shot to complete the three-point play to restore the lead with two minutes left.

James finished the game with nine points and a team-high ten rebounds. Concepcion had a team-high four assists.

Damien Washington led the Aggies with 22 points 11 rebounds and LyBrant Robinson had 21 points.

The win, combined with Misericordia's win over DeSales, puts the Eagles in a tie for second with those two teams. Wilkes secured the top spot with a lopsided win at King's tonight. Eastern will claim the second seed with a win at Wilkes on Saturday. The Eagles could also be the second seed with a loss if Misericordia loses to Manhattanville at home and DeSales loses at Delaware Valley. Eastern beat Wilkes at home in mid-January.

"I am proud of all of our seniors." McNelley concluded. "Ant and Austin particularly though, have had a major impact. They were the first two South Florida guys to come up here. They have been a big part of this build. We've won 30 games in the last two seasons and are back in the MAC Freedom Tournament. They have had a big part of that. I am really proud of how they have grown and handled adversity. We are hoping to get another home game for them."