ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Eastern University Men's Basketball dropped an 86-71 decision at home to former MAC Freedom rival DeSales University. The Eagles shot a season-high 47 percent from the floor and held their own on the glass against the bigger Bulldogs, but the visitors got a game-high 30 points from Timmy Edwards and shot 57 percent from the floor. Jaron Fairweather led the Eagles with 19 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists.

The Eagles (0-5), playing their fifth game in eight days, showed good movement and were better able to create shots in the offense, but DeSales had significant size advantages inside to force the Eagles to take tough shots over bigger players inside or to stay on the perimeter. Eastern made 4-of-7 3-point attempts in the first half and were down four on a corner three from Kent Olewiler with two minutes to play. The unbeaten Bulldogs used an 8-0 run over the final 90 seconds of the first half to go to the locker room up 43-31. Fairweather doubled his career output from behind the arc with a pair of first-half 3-pointers. He came into the game with only one career make, and he took advantage of the DeSales players playing the drive to knock down 4-of-8 from deep.

Sam Gallardo opened the second half with a 3-pointer of a good feed from Sasha Lut, and the Eagles eventually cut the deficit to 45-38 on a steal and score from Kaeshawn Ward after a Lut basket. With three steals today, Ward has 13 takeaways in five games. The rookie guard from Norfolk, Va. finished with 11 points and has scored in double figures in his last four outings while shooting 58 percent from the floor.

The DeSales bigs then took over the game for a 10-to-3 run. Edwards had four baskets in a three minute stretch to build the lead back to 14. David Bradley connected from deep, but his long-range effort was answered by Dat Lambert from distance. Lambert scored all 12 of his second half points on four shots in a five minute stretch. With the smaller Eagles protecting the inside, the junior guard made three step-back 3-pointers in a 90-second span to build a 74-55 lead with 9:18 on the clock. He tied his career-high with 14 points.

The Eagles continued to scrap on defense, but they were unable to get the Bulldogs to make enough mistakes to pull closer than 12 points the rest of the way.

"We fought until the end," Head Coach Dan Pruessner said of his team. "In a lot of ways, this was the best we have played this year. They [DeSales] are not a team that is going to make a lot of mistakes. Their young players are very good, but the experienced guys in the line-up really hurt us today. Edwards understands how to score in the post and [Keba] Mitchell makes every shot around the basket a challenge, and Dat just hits shots against us. Those three scored 58. This is really the first week of college basketball for most of our guys. I was proud of the way we competed, and we are looking forward to Monday night."

Olewiler was 6-of-10 from the floor for 13 points, and Gallardo and Ward each finished with 11.

The Eagles will play at Lebanon Valley on Monday before finishing the shortened season with a home-and-home match-up with Messiah College.