NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – Eastern University Men's Basketball saw it's season-opening winning streak stopped at six with a 69-66 loss to the North Carolina Wesleyan Battling Bishops in the opening game of the CNU/ Holiday Inn Tournament. Eljay Morris led the Eagles with a season-high 15 points in the loss.

The Eagles (6-1) held a 63-62 lead and had the ball with two and a half minutes to go, but Morris had a lay-up in transition rim out and the Bishops gained a lead on a pair of free throws. On the next possession, the Eagles had a pair of chances to retake the lead, but shots from Jaron Fairweather and Morris did not go.

NC Wesleyan (3-2) built the lead to 69-63 with a 3-pointer and a basket in transition. Sam Gallardo converted a three-point play to pull the Eagles to within three at 69-66 with 39 seconds on the clock. The Eastern defense then forced a travel, but a turnover on the inbounds pass gave the Bishops the ball with just a little more than six seconds difference between the shot and game clock.

The Eagles defended and Zubair Lee turned away a driving lay-up late in the clock with his fifth blocked shot of the game. Kaeshawn Ward pushed the ball to Gallardo who got an open look from 25 feet. His shot hit the front of the rim and bounced out. Fairweather tied up the rebound as time expired.

The play mirrored a play near the end of the first half when NC Wesleyan was up 30-28 holding for a final shot with a slim difference between the clocks. Fairweather and Ward combined for a steal and Fairweather beat the buzzer with a dunk to tie the score at the break. He finished the half tied with Zubair Lee with a team-high six points. The Eagles outscored the Bishops 9-to-2 on points off turnovers in the first half.

NC Wesleyan started the second half on a 17-to-10 run before Fairweather connected on a 3-pointer to spark a 12-to-5 run and tie the game at 52. Neither team led by more than two points until the final 75 seconds of the game.

The Eagles made only four 3-pointers and while shooting a season-low 25 percent from behind the arc. NC Wesleyan made 7-of-18 from deep and became the first team to shoot over 38 percent from deep against the Eagles this year. It is just the third meeting all-time between the two programs. Eastern earned a 55-52 win when the two programs met in St. Davids almost exactly 20 years ago.

Fairweather finished with 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Gallardo added 12 points, and Lee had 10 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Ward finished with seven assists. Austin Manley scored a game-high 17 points to pace NC Wesleyan.

"I thought we defended their offense very well," Head Coach Dan Pruessner said after the game. "We fell short in stopping them in the breakdowns. We kept their posts from getting the looks they wanted to, but they hit the big shots from the perimeter. We got a stop and a great look on the last play, but we had a few too many missed opportunities to put us in that hole."

The six-game winning streak to start the season was the longest unbeaten string since the program joined Division III in 1992.

The Eagles will play in tomorrow's consolation game at noon against the Sarah Lawrence College Gryphons.