KEENE, N.H.– After holding of TCNJ late, Eastern University Men's Basketball makes its first appearance in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. They will play the host Keene State College Owls in front of a heavily partisan home crowd in Spaulding Gymnasium.

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Jaron Fairweather scored 18 points, and Kaeshawn Ward had 16 points and six assists. Arkese Claiborne made several huge plays at each end to help the Eagles earn the 80-79 win. He made 7-of-9 shots from the floor for 16 points. He caught a TCNJ lay-up attempt that would have put the Lions up with 12 seconds to play.

The Owls, ranked fifth in the last D3Hoops.com poll, earned their spot with an 82-76 win over a persistent Marymount University team in the opening round. Though the Saints trailed the entire second half, they trimmed a 15-point deficit to two points and never allowed the Owls to build a double-figure lead the rest of the way. Jeff Hunter and Octavio Britto each scored 22 points. Hunter, who leads the nation in double-doubles, added 16 rebounds to secure his 26th in 28 games this year.

Hunter has nearly 2000 points and 1400 rebounds in his five year career. The Owls made the third round of the NCAA Tournament last season and reached the second round of the Tournament in 2022. Hunter was the Little East Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.

He will likely match-up with Eastern's Zubair Lee. Lee, the MAC Commonwealth Defensive Player of the Year, is also a double-double threat every time he steps on the court. On an off night against TCNJ, he recorded his 15th double-double of the year.

Britto is an All-Little East performer who is averaging 20.1 points and 10.9 rebounds over the team's past eight games. Hunter is averaging 18.4 and 15.8 rebounds, and while the Owls are only shooting 43 percent in that stretch, they average 15 offensive rebounds per game.

The Eagles have won their last eight games. In that stretch, Claiborne has emerged as a very efficient scorer. He is averaging 10.9 points and is shooting an impressive 70.9 percent from the floor. Eljay Morris has also been shooting well of late. The senior from the UK has made 8-of-13 from deep during the streak.

The Eagles are shooting 48.1 percent from the floor and over 40 percent from behind the arc. Fairweather has made 20-of-43 from deep and is averaging 18 points per game over that run.

Tonight will be the fifth game the Owls have played against a team in the tournament field. They beat Marymount and UW-Platteville but fell to Stockton and Tufts. The Eagles will be playing their 12th game against teams in the field. They are 6-5 with wins over Stockton, Wabash, Hood (2), Widener, and TCNJ. They lost to Case Western Reserve, Rowan, Widener (2), and Hood.

In last night's win over TCNJ, Jaron Fairweather collected his 500th career rebound.

The winner of this game will advance to take on the winner of the game between PSU-Harrisburg an Guilford.