CHESTER, Pa.– A 27-to-4 run to close the first half proved to be the difference as Eastern University Men's Basketball ended up on the wrong side of a 93-82 decision at Widener. The Host Pride shot 55 percent from behind the arc to pick up a critical win between teams at the top of the MAC Commonwealth table. Draig Cooley led the Eagles with 22 points.

Everything seemed to be going well for the Eagles when they built a 31-20 lead with 26-13 run over a seven-minute stretch. As a team that had been struggling from behind the arc, the Eagles had four players hit for five five long-range efforts. Davin Hernandez hit two 3-pointers and converted a run-out lay-up after a steal at mid-court.

Widener reserve guard Luke Mazur then scored the next 11 points in the game and the Pride took the lead on a Kevin Schenk basket with six minutes left. The Eagles tied the game twice on Cooley baskets before Widener scored the final 12 points of the half to go to the intermission up 47-35.

While the run was daunting, the situation was hardly without hope. In the first game between the two teams, Widener led 49-35 at half.  The Eagles came back to win that game 87-80. 

In the first meeting, the Pride made 3-of-11 from behind the arc in the second half. Today, four different Widener players combined to shoot 8-of-13 from behind the arc. Every time the Eagles ground out a couple scores, it seemed a Widener player answered with a long shot. Dominic Dunn scored 29 points on 12 shots, the graduate transfer forward hit 7-of-8 from behind the arc. Point guard Pat Holden was not far behind him. The graduate point guard hit 5-of-7 from deep and finished with 23. The Eagles did not put together a second-half run of more than four points until the final minute. 

"When a team shoots like that," Head Coach Dan Pruessner said after the game, "they are going to be hard to beat. Dunn was hitting off-balance shots late in the clock from two steps beyond the line. They were on today. We made the 3-pointers early and got caught playing a little bit of their game, which is not going to be good for us. We kept thinking they might catch a little cold stretch where we could gain some ground, but we could not make it happen. At this point we cannot watch scoreboards or worry about results elsewhere. We need to make sure we are prepared for Wednesday."

Jaron Fairweather had 14 points and Hernandez added 13 points and six assists. The team had 16 assists, today was the game all year where the Eagles have had 15 or more assists and lost. 

Eastern will host Albright College at 6:00 pm on Wednesday.