SALEM, Va.– Eastern University Men's Basketball dropped an 83-72 decision to the Christopher Newport Captains (3-1) in the consolation game of the Dick Leftwich Tip-off Classic hosted by Roanoke College. The Eagles led for much of the first 30 minutes and were within four points in the final three minutes before the Captains hit their free throws down the stretch to close out the game.

After a rough first half in the opening game of the tournament, the Eagles executed well on the way to a 36-30 halftime lead. Led by 5-of-7 shooting from Draig Cooley and 3-of-4 from Joshua Grant, Eastern (1-2) made 16-of-33 shots from the floor. The Eagles attempted only three 3-pointers and had just six turnovers.

As the game moved into the second half, the Eagles pushed the lead to eight early on and still held the lead with nine minutes to play. William Blet had six points in the early going but picked up his third foul with 16 and a half minutes to play.

With Blet on the bench, the Captains had more space to operate inside on offense and felt more free to press out on the Eastern perimeter players. Even so, the Eagles held a 55-47 led with 12 minutes to play. A CNU 3-pointer sparked an 8-0 run and Cooley picked up a pair of fouls on consecutive possessions to put the Eagles in deeper foul trouble.

The Captains pulled ahead 68-61 before Blet answered with a three-point play on a good feed from Grant, and the Eagles trailed 72-68 after back-to-back second-chance hoops from Blet and Cooley, but they were never able to close the gap further.

Blet led the Eagles with 21 points and Cooley had 14. Sam Gallardo, Kaeshawn Ward, and Jaron Fairweather each finished with nine. CNU's Trey Barber turned in a game-high 28 points .

"Foul trouble hurt us today," Head Coach Dan Pruessner said after the game. "I think we saw that we can compete with one of the top teams out there. William was a difference-maker on the floor for us on defense, in a lot of things offensively, and as a rebounder. This was a really good tournament. Marietta came into the tournament ranked third in the country and they lost by nine to Roanoke. CNU played right with them and beat Hopkins earlier this month. We played really hard and are making progress."

The Eagles have a pair of close to home road games next week. They are at Haverford on Tuesday and at Cabrini on Thursday.