ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Eastern University Men's Basketball held off a late charge from the visiting Lancaster Bible College Chargers to earn a 66-65 win and stay unbeaten on the young season. Jaron Fairweather led the Eagles with 18 points, five steals, and four assists.

With a little less than eight minutes to play, Sam Gallardo hit a corner 3-pointer and then found Fairweather for a lay-up to put the Eagles up 60-48. The Eagles still led by ten when Kaeshawn Ward hit a driving lay-up with four and a half minutes left. Despite getting some good looks at the basket and earning several trips to the foul line, the Eagles would only score two free throws over the final four and a half minutes.

The Chargers (1-2) cut the deficit to 66-63 on a 3-pointer from Grant Sareyka with 90 seconds to play and to a single point with a pair of free throws with 40-seconds left. The Eastern defense had to stand strong after Ward missed the front end of a one-and-one, and it did. Zubair Lee and Fairweather both contested inside shots and somehow Gallardo came out of the melee with a rebound. After missing the first free throw with under three seconds to play, Gallardo missed the second, and the Eagles kept the Chargers without a shot.

While the defense at the end of the game was about contesting shots and getting rebounds, in the beginning of the game the Eagles used their defense to take the ball and create scoring chances. IN the first half, Eastern scored 20 points off turnovers to build a 32-23 lead at the break. At the half, Ward had eight points and Fairweather and Gallardo each had seven. While the Eagles turned it over 11 times in the first half, the Chargers were only able to score five points off those miscues.

After the Chargers cut the Eastern lead to eight early in the second half, the Eagles pushed their advantage to 14 when Ward found Kevin Reeves underneath for an inside basket. Reeves made all three of his field goal attempts and had three blocks and three steals. Ward finished with a game-high five assists to go with his 14 points and five rebounds.

While the Eastern lead stayed between seven and 12 points, the veteran Charger group always seemed to hit a big shot or get to the foul line to keep within striking distance. Lancaster Bible, with three returning starting guards from the team that finished 23-8 in the 21-22 season, had three different veteran players hit 3-pointers down the stretch to tighten up the game.

Eastern shot 51 percent from the floor and 38.5 percent from behind the arc, but the Eagles only took 15 foul shots and made just seven. Gallardo joined Fairweather and Ward in double-figures with 13 points. He added three assists, three steals, and three rebounds. For LBC, Sareyka finished with a game-high 19 points and Adam Stoltzfus had 13 points and 14 rebounds.  

"They are a very good team," Head Coach Dan Pruessner said after the game. "Their guards are tough and can hit shots, and their size inside presented a lot of problems. They hit shots down the stretch. We got good looks, but we wound up having to come up with a couple really big stops. I thought we dug in and did that. We see where we need to continue to work and get better and we will continue to do that."

The Eagles will host Haverford College at The Nest on Saturday. The Fords have hoisted 78 3-pointers in their first three games and will present a third different challenge this week. This is the first time Eastern Men's Basketball has won its opening five games since the program joined NCAA competition in 1992. The 2010-11 squad won its opening four games and was 8-1 in its first nine.