Eastern Men's Basketball returns to Frederick for a third meeting with the Hood College Blazers. The two teams have split their two contests this season and sit near the top of the NCAA Region 5 Rankings. The Blazers are second behind Widener, and the Eagles sit in fourth behind their two MAC Commonwealth counterparts and Catholic. The winner of tonight's game will take on the winner of the 8 pm game between Alvernia and Widener at Widener.
Eastern enters tonight's contest on a five-game winning streak that started with three home wins and finished with road wins at Albright and Messiah. In Grantham, the Eagles scuffled to their second worst offensive output of the year but did enough on the defensive end to earn a 60-53 win over the Falcons. The Eagles held their hosts to just 33 percent shooting on the year and only one made 3-pointer.
To advance, the Eagles will need to keep the Hood shooters from having any level of comfort at the 3-point line. The Blazers take 33 long-range efforts per game and are ninth in the country in made 3-pointers per game. When the two teams met in Frederick in January, Hood made only three from deep, but the Eastern turnovers proved to be their undoing as Hood rallied from a late deficit to earn a 71-68 win. The Blazers made only three 3-pointers in the first half of the game at Eastern and were down by a bunch, but their late rally was fueled in part by four second-half 3-pointers.
The game at Eastern saw
Jaron Fairweather hit 8-of-11 from deep and finish with a career-high 39 points. Garrison Linton scored 14 points and put together his first triple double. It was the second time an Eastern guard had a career day from deep against the Blazers. In 2021
Davin Hernandez hit seven 3-pointers and scored 26 off the bench to lead a short-handed Eastern squad to an 83-77 win.
In the two games between the teams this year, the Eagles have 41 turnovers, made 40 free throws, and have shot 40.7 percent from the field. The Blazers have 32 assists and 11 blocked shots. The have attempted 43 free throws, which is well above their average of 15.8 per game, but they have made only 10 3-pointers while giving up 21.
The MAC Commonwealth Tournament Champion will receive the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The game will be
streamed live with livestats available.
Tickets for the game will be available at the door and are $8 for adults and $6 for seniors. MAC students with ID and accompanied children are free.
Click Here to see game notes.
