GLENSIDE, Pa.– Eastern University Men's Basketball grabbed a season-best 59 rebounds and made enough second-half free throws to hold off the host Arcadia University Knights by a 73-63 score. Zubair Lee and DaRon Sherman each posted double-doubles, and Arkese Claiborne scored 15 points to reach the 1,000 point mark for his career.

The Eagles (6-3), who trailed 30-29 at halftime in their first game against Arcadia since 2007, used a 20-to-5 burst to start the second half to grab control of the game. Nick Mate had the first eight points of the run nd scored nine total in the burst. The junior guard started the half with a 3-pointer, but the Knights grabbed the lead back with a long-range effort at the other end. That Josh Parks 3-pointer, would be the only Arcadia field goal until the hosts hit a lay-up with 12 minutes left.

Mate put the Eagles up for good with his second 3-pointer of the day and then used the spacing to get to the foul line. After a Brian Jackson blocked shot at the other end, Lee grabbed a Mate miss and turned it into a three-point play. In the game, Lee had six offensive rebounds and drew ten fouls on the way to shooting 13 free throws. He would finish with 21 points to go with a career-high 24 rebounds, and five blocked shots. After the break he had 11 points, 15 rebounds, three steals, and was 7-of-9 from the line.

The Eastern lead stretched to 11 on back-to-back baskets from Jackson and Claiborne before both teams posted empty possessions with the score at 44-33. After the two teams traded free throws, Claiborne pulled to within a single point of his milestone with a dunk on a pass from Lee. The Eagles grabbed their biggest lead at 49-35 on a a transition basket from Sherman.

After the Knights scored five straight points to close the gap to 49-40, Claiborne scored after a Lee steal to reach 1,000 for his career. The graduate student from Fredericksburg came to Eastern last year after starting his career at Messiah University. He played an influential role in helping the Eagles to a MAC Commonwealth Championship last year and is averaging a career-best 15.6 points per game. He had scored 680 points at Messiah and with today's 15-point outing, he has 324 in his 36 games at Eastern.

The Knights (3-5) cut the Eastern lead to 61-57 with five minutes to play, but a pair of free throws from Claiborne, an emphatic block from Lee, and a lay-up from Sherman pushed the Eastern lead back to eight. Sherman finished the game with 15 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. He made 4-of-6 shots with 10 points in the final 20 minutes. The sophomore guard has scored in double-figures in five of the last six games.

Lee would block two more shots in the final three minutes and the Eagles made free throws to keep the Knights at arms length. Eastern came into the game ranked first nationally in blocked shots per game. Though they played today without an injured Olise Onyeka, who averages over four per game, The Eagles turned away 11 shots. Lee and Jackson each had five and Josh Fadahunsi wiped away an inside attempt late. With their presence at the rim, the Eagles held the Knights to 32.4 percent shooting and only 28 points in the pain.

This afternoon's MAC Crossover restored an old rivalry that had not been played since the two teams split their season-series when both were members of the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference in 2006-07. The Eagles and Knights switched sides of the MAC after the 2019-20 academic year. Eastern's 59 rebounds today was the second-most in a game since 2006-07.Today's mark is secondly to the 65 in last year's lopsided win over Penn State Schylikill.  It is the first time the Eagles have had more than 48 rebounds this year.

"We got a good run to start the second half," head Coach Dan Pruessner said after the game. "We did a really good job on the glass all game. Zubair was very good, but I felt like we did a good job as a team. DaRon, Arkese, and B-Jack all committed to getting there. If Arkese gets one more, we have four guys in double-figures for rebounds. We had a couple rough stretches for turnovers, but we were much better taking care of the ball today."

The Eagles trailed 22-13 with nine minutes to play in the first half, but they tied the game with a 12-to-3 run over a  three minute stretch. Eastern was only 3-for-14 from behind the arc and made only 20-of-31 free throws.

Eastern will be off for finals and will end the semester with two games against Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) opponents at Hampden Sydney on December 20 and 21.