MARIETTA, Ohio– Eastern University Men's Basketball saw its historic season come to an end with an 88-65 loss to the University of Rochester Yellowjackets in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The Eagles were within five points with 12  minutes to play, but Rochester put together a 15-0 run to answer a William Blet dunk and pull away to a 73-53 lead. Blet finished with 18 points to lead the Eagles.

The Yellowjackets were 5-for-5 with five made free throws in what proved to be the decisive five-minute run. Even after going behind by 20, the Eagles put together another push and had the game back to a 12-point affair with five minutes left, but they could not close the gap further and the Yellowjackets made free throws down the stretch to secure a spot in the second round.

Even shooting 60 percent in the early going, the Eagles (21-6) fell behind early. The bigger Rochester players hit 15-of-21 from the floor to build a 37-19 lead with eight minutes to play in the first half.

Eastern closed out the half on a 25-to-13 and had two possessions late with a chance to cut the game to a single possession, but two missed shots and a turnover allowed the Yellowjackets to hold a 50-44 edge at the break.

The Eagles shot nearly 61 percent (17-of-28) form the floor and were even with Rochester on the boards, but the Yellowjackets shot nearly 65 percent (20-of-31) and had only four first-half turnovers.

Jaron Fairweather hit a 3-pointer after a Draig Cooley steal to start the second half. Blet then drew an offensive foul and the Eagles found a good look for Sam Gallardo on the wing. In a harbinger of things to come, his 3-pointer went halfway down and flipped out. The Eagles earned another stop, but had another empty possession with two shots from in close to try to pull within one.

The Rochester lead grew to 56-47 before the Eagles went on a 6-to-2 run that ended with the Blet dunk to pull within five. The Yellowjackets then put together the decisive push.

The Eagles made just 6-of-27 shots and 7-of-11 free throws in the second half. The Eagles forced more turnovers and slowed down the Yellowjacket shooters, but Rochester still shot 52 percent from the floor and made 14 free throws.

"I think it will take a little while for the guys to process what we have done," Head Coach Dan Pruessner said after the game. "It is an amazing accomplishment to get here, and we are going to build on this. Rochester is a very good team with a lot of tournament experience on the roster. We put in a good run to chase them, but that was a tough ask to catch that team from behind. We made some adjustments defensively midway through the first half, but they put us in a hole early and we had to expend a lot of energy to get close. I am proud of this group,

Gallardo had 13 points and Jaron Fairweather hit three 3-pointers and finished with 11. Draig Cooley and Kaeshawn Ward each finished with nine.