ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Eastern University Men's Basketball emerged from a tight defensive battle with a 67-66 home win over the previously unbeaten Misericordia University Cougars. Zubair Lee scored the final seven Eastern points in the win.

The visiting Cougars (5-1) had the only three-possession lead of the game at 19-12 and the only two-possession lead of the of the second half at 46-42. Even that lead emerged from an unusual situation. With 15 minutes left and the game tied at 42, Davin Hernandez made a steal and was looking to start in transition. He was fouled by a Misericordia defender and it looked like the Eagles would have the edge. After the foul, Hernandez and the Misericordia player bumped into each other and Hernandez was assessed a technical foul. The Cougars made both free throws and scored on the extra possession.

The Cougars had two chances to stretch their lead, but in each case, the Eastern defense stood its ground. Lee made a basket at one end and then triggered the break with a blocked shot at the other end. Nick Mate found Keshawn Ward for the finish to tie the score at 46.

From that moment on, neither team led by more than three.

The Eagles (4-2) went up 60-57 on a 3-point play in transition from Jaron Fairweather. The senior scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half. The Cougars then answered with a 5-to-0 run. The first basket came on a lay-up from Nate Kreitzer, and the Cougars went up by two on a 3-pointer from Joe Badachino.

The Eagles found their match-up edge with Lee, and the sophomore forward went to work. He split a pair of free throws and after a defensive stop scored inside on a strong move. He gave the Eagles a three-point edge with a put-back basket with 1:13 on the clock.

The Cougars responded with a basket at the other end, Lee again had the answer for another three-point lead. It looked like the Eagles would have a chance to ice the game when Ward ripped a ball loose with 41 seconds to play, but the experienced Cougars elected to play defense and got their stop.

When the Eagles fouled a Cougar player with six seconds left and a three-point lead, it looked like the strategy worked when the front-end of the one-and-one rimmed out. Two Eastern players were in position and grabbed for the ball, but it bounced free and Misericordia forward Kevin Lazdowsky put in a lay-up to close the gap back to one.

After the Eagles were fouled and missed the front end of the one-and-one, the hosts would need a Kevin Reeves steal on the inbounds pass to ice the game. The final interception turned out to be the tenth steal of the game for the Eagles.

"They are a tough match-up," Head Coach Dan Pruessner said after the game. "Lazdowsky is very composed and skilled. We threw a lot of guys at him in the hope that we would have some success late. He had 23 points with 15 minutes left, and he really had just the tip-in late and one 3-pointer in the late part of the game. That said, 29 points, seven rebounds and eight assists is an impressive effort."

"We were able to get some key stops," Pruessner continued. "We were also able to turn a good number of those into points. Eljay had a big steal and finish with 11 minutes left. It was good for our team to be in a game where we had to make possessions count at both ends of the floor,"

The Cougars had the biggest lead of the game with a 19-12 lead midway through the first half. The Eagles hit four 3-pointers in a 14-to-5 run to flip the game narrative. Nick Mate made the first, and Lee hit from the top of the key before Ward capped the run with back-to-back long-range efforts.

Ward had 12 points and eight rebounds to lead the eagles to a 34-33 halftime lead. Lazdowsky had 14 first-half points. The Cougars went 7-of-8 from the foul line in the first half. The Eagles got only one trip to the line but made five 3-pointers.

The Eagles made 53.8 percent from the floor in the second half and held the Cougars 13-of-29. The Eagles shot slightly better than the Cougars for the game and had. 42-39 edge on the glass. Ward finished the game with 16 points,  Lee had a team-high 18 with six rebounds and two blocks. Fairweather had 15 points, six rebounds, four assists, and two steals.

This was the first time the two MAC programs have played since Eastern moved the MAC Commonwealth in 2020. The two schools were rivals in the MAC Freedom and in the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference and had played at least twice a year dating back to 1993. With the win today, Eastern has a 21-20 edge in the last twenty years of games.

Eastern will host Neumann University at 7:00 pm Tuesday.