ANNVILLE, Pa.– Eastern University Men's Basketball scored the first nine points of the game and never trailed on the way to a 68-54 MAC Commonwealth win at Lebanon Valley. The Eagles (13-2, 8-0) remained unbeaten atop the MAC Commonwealth with their 12th consecutive win. Jaron Fairweather scored a team-high 18 points and added seven rebounds to lead four Eagles in double-figures. As the league hit the midpoint tonight, Eastern and Hood (7-1) are the only two teams int he league with fewer than four losses.

Though the Eagles jumped to the early advantage, and they held LVC (5-10, 2-6) to only 32 percent from the field in the first half, they were unable to stretch the lead and held a 29-22 edge at the break. Fairweather had ten and Gallardo had seven at half.

The Eastern defense forced 11 LVC turnovers and did not allow their hosts to make a 3-pointer, but the Eagles gave the ball back nine times and were only 3-of-15 from behind the arc. LVC shot the only seven free throws of the first half.

The Eastern offense showed a commitment to the inside game in the second half. The Eagles outscored LVC 28-to-10 in the paint. Terron Bacon hit the only Eastern 3-pointer of the second half of a beautiful touch pass out of the post from William Blet. That hoop came late in the shot clock. Eastern pushed the pace on every possession but showed great patience to protect the lead. The Bacon 3-pointer was the only shot the Eagles made outside the paint in the second half.

With the commitment to getting inside, the Eagles shot 60 percent from the floor after the break. Three times, Kaeshawn Ward was able to score inside baskets late in the clock. The sophomore point guard finished with 14 points, three steals, and three assists.

While the Dutchmen found a little more success on the offensive end in the second half, they were unable to to string together baskets to close the gap to within two possessions. LVC came into the game as the top 3-point shooting team in the MAC Commonwealth, but the Eastern defense held their hosts to only four made 3-pointers in the game.

Collin Jones had 23 points and 11 rebounds to lead LVC. The 2021 MAC Commonwealth Player of the Year was 9-f-13 from the foul line. Blet had ten points and seven rebounds, and Gallardo finished with 13 points.

"Jones was a handful for us," Head Coach Dan Pruessner said after the game. "He is really strong in the post, but Jaron and Jairus [Carroll] made him work very hard to get his points. We settled too much in the first half, but I thought we were both aggressive and disciplined in the second. We were able to get Sam and Kae in some situations to get downhill late in shot clocks. They stacked their defense to take away Blet, and William did a good job of passing out of double teams and converting some big chances."

The Eagles are at Messiah on Saturday. Eastern beat the Falcons 60-55 in the first meeting between the two squads. Eastern was just 12-of-29 from the foul line in the win.

"After the game tonight," Pruessner said. "The guys were all excited in the locker room for few minutes, and then all of a sudden, Boog [Fairweather] started asking questions about Messiah. We are not even on the bus to go home, and he is asking questions about Saturday. That's how these guys are. I love it. On to the next game."