READING, Pa.– Alvernia's Physical Education Center has not been a welcoming place for Eastern University Men's Basketball. Coming into today's MAC Commonwealth game against the host Golden Wolves, The Eagles (11-5, 3-2)  had won only one time in the building since 2003. On this night, however, the Eagles shot nearly 58 percent from the floor, led from the first minute, and pulled away to a 100-78 win. Five Eastern players scored in double figures in the win.

"That's a big win for us," Head Coach Dan Pruessner said after the game. " Having dropped two in a row, we needed to have a good performance. We were not really even sure what we would look like today. Our 'white team' kind of beat up on our starters in practice on Tuesday. So it is a credit to those guys for having our guys ready to go."

Out of the gate, the Eagles put together one of their best offensive halves of the year. After Alvernia scored the opening basket, the Eagles jumped out to a 12-2 lead only 3:18 into the game Eljay Morris and Jaron Fairweather each had two baskets in the opening spurt.

Though the Golden Wolves (11-5, 3-2) closed the gap to 35-33 on a put-back dunk from Kyle Gordon, the Eagles responded with a Zubair Lee dunk at the other end. After another Alvernia basket, Kaeshawn Ward connected on a 3-pointer for a 40-35 lead with 4:50 to play in the first half.

The Eagles stretched their lead again and led by as many as nine in the first half and had a chance to push it to 11 after a stop with 19 seconds left. An Eastern turnover gave the Golden Wolves a chance at the final shot and Malik Slay finished a lay-up as time expired to cut the Eastern edge to 54-47.

In the opening 20 minutes, Eastern shot 57.9 percent (22-for-38) from the floor and made 5-of-11 3-pointers. The Golden Wolves kept within reach by making 13-of-15 foul shots. Fairweather had 12 points and Lee had 11. Alvernia guard Alex Cercado led all scorers at the break with 14.

"At halftime, I told the other coaches there is no way we are going to shoot 57.9 percent in the second half," Pruessner continued. "We shot 57.7 percent, so I guess I was right. They stayed in the game at the foul line in the first half. Our big guys committed to attacking and getting to the rim and the line and we continued to make shots. Eljay was terrific for us, and Zubair and Olise both had strong outings at both ends of the floor."

Morris finished with 18 points, and Lee had 21 points, 10 rebounds, and three blocks. Olise Onyeka scored 12 points on seven shots. The 6'8 sophomore also blocked a shot and, according to Pruessner, did a great job contesting shots at the rim. Eastern made 14-of-18 second-half free throws. ALvernia was 13-of-15 in the first half. 

While the bigs were fantastic inside, the Eagles got outstanding efforts from their veteran guards as well. Fairweather scored an incredibly efficient 17 points and blocked a pair of shots. He was 6-of-8 from the floor with a pair of 3-pointes and three made free throws. Ward handled all the pressure the Alvernia guards could give him. He scored 18 points, grabbed seven rebounds and dished out nine assists in 26 minutes. Ward was 7-of-11 from the floor.

With his 17 point effort, Fairweather is nine points from reaching 1000 for his career. He scored 7 points in 19 games as a freshman.

"With their guy [Jakob Kelly] being out," Pruessner said. "They wound up playing a lot of four guard rotations. That made it tougher on us to try to force turnovers and dictate pace with pressure, but we did a good job of seeing what was there on offense and not giving their shooters a lot of easy looks."

Alvernia made four 3-pointers in the first 10 minutes of the game and then did not make another one until the final three minutes of the game. The Golden Wolves finished 6-of-20 from behind the arc.

The Eagles will host Messiah in the second game of a doubleheader with the women on Saturday.