CLEVELAND– In the championship game of the Bill Sudeck Tournament, Eastern University Men's Basketball dropped an 82-72 decision to the host Case Western Reserve University Spartans. The Eagles were with striking distance-- down five with the ball with three minutes to play--, but the defending UAA Champion Spartans got a blocked shot at one end and hit a pair of free throws at the other end to spark a 5-to-0 run to create the final margin.
Zubair Lee and Keshawn Ward each scored 20 points.
"We competed at a very high level today," Head Coach Dan Pruesser said after the game. "We knew coming in that our defense was going to have to be great against their size and skill. We did a lot of great things, but in the end we had just a few to many empty possessions and they hit big shots."
In the first half, the Spartans (2-0) made only 3-of-14 from behind the arc, but the Eagles made only 9-of-36 shots from the floor as the bigger CWRU defense contested everything in the lane. The Eagles made 10 free throws and trailed only 37-30 at half.
Sparked by 12 points from Ward, the Eagles opened the second half on a 14-to-2 run. Ward hit a long 3-pointer to close the gap to two and then ripped a ball free and hit a second long-rage attempt for a 40-39 lead. Lee scored inside and Ward hit another lay-up for a five-point lead with 15 minutes to play.
"It was great to see the second half from Kae," Pruessner continued. "We know how good he can be, and it was good to see that come out early in the year."
Ward was 9-of-12 with 20 points and three steals after intermission. The Eagles led 50-49 with 11 minutes left, but a pair of 3-pointers from CWRU's 6'8 small forward Hunter Drench put the Spartans up. While the Eagles cut the deficit to two on many occasions, they were never able to get the big shot they needed to retake the lead.
Lee added 13 rebounds and a pair of steals and was named to the all-tournament team.
After driving back to Philly, the Eagles will not have much time to recover as they will face the defending NJAC Champion Rowan University Profs on Wednesday at the Nest. Rowan advanced tot he third round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament and took down a pair of historically strong programs to win a tournament at the University of Rochester.
