READING, Pa.– A furious late-rally fell just short as the fourth-seeded Eastern Men's Basketball team took the top-seeded Alvernia University Golden Wolves to the brink before falling 75-70 in the MAC Commonwealth Semifinals.
Zubair Lee scored a career-high 24 points in the loss.
Alvernia led by seven at the half and for the first fifteen minutes of the second half the lead was double-figures more than it was not. The Eastern defense put together several good runs with stops, but the Eagles did not score consecutive baskets at any point in that stretch, and the Alvernia lead stood at 66-50 with five minutes to play.
Draig Cooley scored on a tough drive from the right side and stole a kickoff pass to start a transition opportunity.
Jaron Fairweather finished and the Eastern student section found a reason to stand up. Cooley hit a pair of free throws and Fairweather finished after a
Sam Gallardo steal to close the Alvernia lead to eight with three and a half minutes left. The Eagles had a chance to cut it to six after a steal from Fairweather, but Gallardo's lay-up attempt spun out and Cooley was tied up on the rebound. The possession arrow went Alvernia's way.
The Wolves beat a trap for a dunk to push the lead back to 10, but the Eagles dug in. After Gallardo split a pair from the line, the Eagles forced a miss late in the shot clock and Fairweather scored a 3-pointer after an offensive rebound.
After a timeout, Cooley stole a ball at mid-court and found Gallardo for a corner-three with 1:53 on the clock. Alvernia's 16-point lead had shrunk to three. After Malik Green split a pair at the line, Gallardo hit another 3-pointer to pull the Eagles to within a point with 91 seconds left.
A pair of Alvernia free throws pushed the host's lead to three, and the Golden Wolves had a chance to stretch it after an empty possession. The Golden Wolves held the ball for a long possession, but the Eastern defense held. Cooley pulled down a tough defensive rebound and the Eagles elected to attack the basket down three.
Kaeshawn Ward earned the paint and drew two defenders and pitched the ball to Lee on the left block. The first-year forward rose through contact and threw down a dunk.
After the time out, the Eagles took one shot to steal a ball before sending the Wolves to the foul line. Even after Robert Mullan made both free throws the Eagles had two chances to tie the game from behind the arc. Fairweather took a tough three with a hand in his face. Cooley grabbed his 10th rebound of the game to keep the play alive and fired the ball to Gallardo in the corner. His shot rimmed out and the Eagles tried committed a foul while trying to tie up the rebound.
Nigel Cooke made both free throws for the final margin.
The Eagles made only 9-of-30 from the floor in the first half and were within seven in large part because they had only two turnovers and grabbed seven offensive rebounds. Lee had 12 first half points. He went 4-for-4 from the foul line for the half and was 12-for-12 from the line for the game.
Eastern (18-9) went 21-of-25 from the foul line in the game. Eastern's early shooting woes were in part due to nine Alvernia blocked shots. Eastern finished 22-of-61 from the floor.
"We wanted to get to the foul line in the second half, and we did." Head Coach
Dan Pruessner said after the game. "Its a testament to who these guys are that down 16 with five minutes against a very good team that we still found a way to be right there. It's tough to go Saturday, Monday, Wednesday, and yet we found the fight to defend the whole night and create the kind of chaos we needed to in the final minutes. It's just very hard to beat a good team when you shoot 36 percent."
Cooley finished with 15 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, and two steals. He finishes his career with over 1000 points and 497 rebounds in 89 games. With two steals tonight, Fairweather has 70 for the season. He is tied with Eastern legend Antoine Harden for the second highest single-season total since the University moved to NCAA Division III and a 25-game schedule. He had 11 points and six rebounds. Gallardo finished with 10 points.
Alvernia had five players in double-figures. The Golden Wolves (19-7) will host Widener in the MAC Commonwealth Championship game on Saturday.
In Eastern's 31-year history of NCAA Basketball, only last-year's 21-win team won more games in single season than this year's team.
