ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Four minutes into the second half, the Eastern Men's Basketball lead stood at four points, and the visiting Wilson College Phoenix looked poised to make a run at snapping the Eagles' four-game winning streak. A pair of free throws from Zubair Lee and a put-back basket from Jaron Fairweather sparked a 35-14 run to put the game away. Lee scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half to pace the Eagles. 

Lee came into the game ranked fifth in the country with 4.86 offensive rebounds per game, but the sophomore forward picked up a pair of early fouls and played less than six minutes in the first half. After the break, Lee grabbed four offensive rebounds, drew six fouls, and was able to be disruptive on the defensive end. Arkese Claiborne was nearly as influential after the intermission. In less than ten minutes, he drew three fouls, had eight points, an assist, and a steal. The senior transfer finished the game with a season-high twelve points. 

Though the Eagles shot nearly 52 percent from the floor and had ten different players score baskets, they held just a 39-32 lead at the break. Eastern (6-2) was 10-of-11 in the paint, but the Eagles were unable to push pace, hit a high percentage from deep, or get to the offensive glass. Eastern had just five second-chance points in the opening 20 minutes. Eljay Morris lead the Eagles with seven points.

The opening moments of the second half felt a bit like the first. Though Nick Mate answered a Wilson 3-pointer with one of his own, the visitors cut the Eastern lead to three and had an answer with inside baskets from Darryl Garib to keep things close. Kevin Reeves hit a big 3-pointer to push the Eastern lead to nine, and then Lee had a pair of baskets to stretch the edge to 11. Fairweather attacked the rim and made a pair of free throws for a 60-47 lead with 13 minutes to play. 

The Eagles would not allow Wilson to get within ten the rest of the way, and the Eagles, by not allowing the Pheonix to score without an answer, ratcheted the lead up to 28 points with four minutes to play. 

The Eagles made 18-of-33 second half shots. Led by Lee's work on the glass, the Eagles converted seven offensive rebounds into 14 second-chance points.

For the game, Eastern finished with a positive seven rebound margin and forced 11 more turnovers than they committed (22-11). Kaeshawn Wrd had a team-high five assists, and Fairweather finished with 11 points and four steals. 

Wilson (5-5) was in the NCAA Tournament last year. Ethan Wilson led them with 25 and Darryl Garib had 23. 

"This was a good over-all team effort," Head Coach Dan Pruessner said after the game. "Our guys are starting to really buy in to what we are trying to do with pace and pressure. They are seeing the benefits of playing this uptempo style in the second halves of games. We need to take advantage of our depth and conditioning. We got 40 points off the bench tonight, and we were able to pull away with pressure over the second half."

The Eagles will be off for finals and will have three final non-league games before the calander flips and MAC Commonwealth play begins on January 3rd at Stevenson. The Eagles are at Stockton on Saturday and then will play Roanoke and Wabash at Catholic's Tournament on the 19th and 20th.