NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – Eastern University Men's Basketball overcame a cold-shooting afternoon to outlast the Sarah Lawrence College Gryphons, 69-62, in the consolation game of the CNU/ Holiday Inn Invitational. Zubair Lee finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and four blocks to earn a spot on the all-tournament team.

The Eagles never trailed in the second half and  went up 61-46 on a Sam Gallardo lay-up with six and a half minutes left. That lead slowly eroded as the Eagles went the next six minutes without a free throw. After shooting 17-of-19 from the foul line in the first half, the Eagles left some points on the table with ten second-half misses from the foul line.

With the Gryphons scoring on offensive rebounds and early 3-pointers, the two teams were tied at 27-27 with five minutes to play int he first half The Eagles took the lead for good and built a six-point edge without the benefit of a field goal. Eljay Morris made four foul shots and Jaron Fairweather made a pair before the Gryphons connected on two free throws with ninety seconds to play.

Fairweather stripped a steal and converted and Sam Gallardo made two more free throws to send the Eagles to the intermission up 37-29. Eastern built the lead despite making only 9-of-32 (28.1 percent)  from the floor. The Eastern defense held the Gryphons to just five field goals inside the arc and only six free throw attempts while blocking six shots and ripping nine steals free. Fairweather had a pair of blocks and four steals to go with his seven first-half points. Kaeshawn Ward scored ten of his 14 points in the first half.

Justin DiFabio hit 4-of-6 from behind the arc to lead the Gryphons with 13 first-half points.

The Eastern lead grew to double-figures early in the second half. Olise Onyeka scored four points in a row to give the Eagles their biggest lead of the game at 55-37 with twelve minutes left. The Eagles made only four field goals the rest of the game, and two of those came from Lee in the final minute.

Nine different Eastern players scored in the game, and Eljay Morris scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds for his second-straight game in double-figures.

"With the exception of first-half 3-point attempts and rebounding, the guys hit every goal that we wanted them to hit." Head Coach Dan Pruessner said after the game. "We missed a lot of shots we normally hit. They were only 2-of-12 from behind the arc in the second half and had only four offensive rebounds. In the end we relied on our defense to get stops and that's what gave us the win. If shoot at a normal rate, we would pull away in that game. We have a tough test on Wednesday before heading into the league."

Eastern will play at the University of Scranton on Wednesday and start the MAC Commonwealth schedule with a home game against York College next Saturday.