WILKES-BARRE, Pa.– Eastern University Men's Basketball saw a tremendous opportunity to make a statement in the MAC Freedom slip away when the host King's College Monarchs erased an eight-point lead late in the game and pulled away to a 96-90 overtime win. With the loss, the Eagles (11-10, 6-4 MAC Freedom) drop into a tie for fourth in the league with the Monarchs.

While the first half was wide open, the Eagles missed several great chances to carve out a big lead. Darius Washington hit five first-half 3-pointers to lead the Eagles with 15 at the intermission, but ten first-half turnovers and several missed lay-ups allowed the smaller Monarchs to keep the game tied at the break.

The second half saw the Eagles look inside, and they found Victor Peña repeatedly in mismatch situations inside. Peña scored fifteen of his 22 points in the second half.

Washington tied the game on his seventh 3-pointer of the day at 69-69 with seven minutes remaining in regulation. Austin Duncan put the Eagles up three with a strong finish at the rim and a made free throw, and the Eagles scored inside at will to build an 80-72 lead with 2:50 on the clock.

Even after King's Tyler Millan made a three-point play at the other end, The Eagles still had a chance to push the advantage to seven with just over two minutes on the clock, but Peña missed a pair of free throws.

The five-point edge eroded quickly when Connor Callejas hit a pair of free throws and the Eagles had a turnover against the Monarch press that resulted in a lay-up. King's nearly took the lead on a second turnover, but Millan's 3-pointer rimmed out.

After nearly giving the whole lead away, the Eagles gathered themselves and made four free throws to lead 84-79 with less than 50 seconds on the clock. Even after a three-point play from Chris Fazzini, the Eagles had the ball with a two point lead and 37 seconds on the clock.

The Eagles worked to run clock, but did not get a shot off to give the Monarchs the ball with seven seconds to play. Josh Bailey drove the length of the court for a lay-up with less than two seconds to play to tie the game at 84 and force overtime. Bailey, who had four points going into the final seconds of the game, was the difference for the Monarchs in overtime. He finished with 15 points.

Eastern scored the first four points of overtime, but the Monarchs rode their late-game momentum on  a 12-to-0 run to grab command of the game.

Scanlon Gym has never been a comfortable place for the Eagles to play. This is Eastern's seventh loss in the last eight games at King's. Eastern's only win in that stretch came last year.

Washington led the Eagles with 23 points. His seven 3-pointers are the most by an Eastern player since Bobby Black hit that many in February of 2006. Peña finished with 22 points and a game-high 16 rebounds.

Callejas hit 4-of-5 three pointers in the second half and finished with 22 to lead King's.

"We have shown good toughness in situations this year," Head Coach Eric McNelley said, "but today was not one of those. We have to execute better down the stretch to win on the road in this league. I hope we will learn from today."

The Eagles have four games remaining in the regular season. At this point, Wilkes and DeSales are leading the league at 8-2, and Misericordia is a game behind at 7-3. The next three games are against teams that are already eliminated from post-season consideration with the final game of the year at Wilkes.

Eastern will host FDU-Florham on Wednesday night.