ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– A 10-to-0 run over an eight minute stretch late enabled Eastern University Men's Basketball to earn a 70-64 win over the visiting York College Spartans in the opening round of the MAC Commonwealth Tournament. With a put-back basket early in the second half, Draig Cooley became the 35th player in program history to reach the 1000-point mark. He finished the game with 13 points, 15 rebounds, six assists, four blocks and a steal.

The Eagles trailed 56-52 with nine and a half minutes to play, and the game seemed very much in doubt.

Cooley found Jaron Fairweather in a deep post position for an easy hook shot and then the Eagles tied the game on a Lay-in from Zubair Lee with eight and a half minutes left. When York's Sean Kelly answered with 8:12 on the clock it seemed that a game that had been a closely contested defensive affair was going to open up.

It went the other way.

Lee tied the game with a jumper, and the Eastern defense dug in. Cooley blocked a shot on the next York possession and put the Eagles up 60-58 with a pair of free throws. The Eagles then forced a shot-clock violation but could not convert. Neither team scored until even Reeves split a pair of free throws for a 61-58 edge. The lead crept slowly upwards and and finally stretched to six on a Fairweather lay-up in transition with three minutes left.

The Spartans took a timeout and looked to get the ball inside, but Lee brought the Eastern student-section to its feet with a huge block. Lee had a second block with a six-point lead and the Eastern edge finally grew to eight on a pair of free throws from Cooley with eighty seconds to play. The Eagles went only 4-for-10 from the foul line in the final 65 seconds, but that was enough. York scored on a beautiful alley-top dunk with 50 seconds to play and made a pair of baskets in the final 14 seconds for the final margin.

"First, they were a team no-one wanted to play in the post-season," Head Coach Dan Pruessner said after the game. "They have been so hot down the stretch, and they are hard to play against. They run offense deep and run hard the whole way through. There are no breaks. This was a good win."

"Draig was really good tonight," Pruessner continued. "It is a great accomplishment to get to 1000 points and he did it with a game that is pretty representative of who he is and how he plays. We needed him to be on the glass tonight and to make good decisions with the ball and he did both. Kevin Reeves was super-efficient off the bench and Sam made some big shots."

After a back-and-forth first half, Kevin Reeves scored at the buzzer to send the two teams to the locker room with tied at 36-36. Reeves scored 10 of his team-high 15 in the first half. Jackson Mascari had ten to lead the Spartans.

After Kelly scored to open the second half, the Eagles went on a 7-to-0 run to to build a 43-38 lead. Cooley's put-back after a missed 3-pointer from Fairweather capped the run and gave the graduate guard from Kingston, Pa. His 1000th career point.

York then flipped the script with a 12-to-2 run over a four and a half minute stretch. Jayden Rowe had seven and Mascari had five to build a 50-45 lead. Up five, the Spartans had the ball with a chance to stretch the lead further when Nick Mate poked a ball free and converted off a Sam Gallardo pass at the other end.

Rowe hit a 3-pointer for a six-point lead before Reeves tapped in a Cooley miss and Gallardo hit a 3-pointer from the right wing to pull within a point with nearly 11 minutes to play.

Fairweather finished with 12 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals, and Gallardo finished with 12 points. With 68 steals this year, Fairweather moves into the fourth spot on the Eastern single-season record. Marcus Saunders had 72 in in 1993-94, and Antoine Harden had a year with 70 and a year with 69.

Cooley now has 1004 points,  487 rebounds, 201 assists, 120 steals, and 39 blocked shots in 88 career games.

The Eagles advance to the MAC Commonwealth Semifinals. They will play at Alvernia on Wednesday. Game time is set for 8:00 pm. The winner of that game will play the winner of Wednesday's other semifinal on Saturday. Hood is playing at Widener at 7:00 pm