OWINGS Mills, Md.– Eastern University Men's Basketball held off a late push from the host Stevenson University Mustangs to claim an 89-84 MAC Commonwealth victory and snap an eight-game losing streak dating back to early January. Connor Flleet led six Eastern players in double-figures with 16 points.

The Eagles (9-12, 2-8) built a 10-point lead early and saw that edge grow to 23 on a 3-pointer from Fleet with 4:16 to play in the first half. Though the hosts made shots to cut into the Eastern lead, the Eagles still led 54-36 at halftime.

In his first start of the year, Anthony Williams scored ten of his 12 points in the first half on 5-of-6 shooting. As a team, the Eagles made 21-of-36 (58.3 percent) from the floor before the break. Zubair Lee had ten points and eight rebounds off the bench and Nick Mate had eight points with a pair of long 3-pointers.

With Stevenson making only 12-of-36 shots, the Eagles had a 26-18 edge in first-half rebounds. The Eastern group left some points on the table by making only 8-of-13 from the foul line.

Though the scoring slowed, the Eagles still held a 73-53 lead with 10 minutes to play.  The Mustangs cut into the Eastern lead with a 16-to-5 run over a six minute stretch where the Eagles fell out of sorts offensively. Williams had the only basket in the run where Stevenson went 5-of-7 from the floor.

With the Eastern lead at 78-69, the Mustangs put together what looked to be another good defensive possession that had DaRon Sherman on the perimeter with shot clock running down. The sophomore guard turned down a screen from Lee and dropped in a 3-pointer from the wing to put the Eagles back up 12.

The Eagles still led by 11 with a minute to play, but the Mustangs had one more late push. The hosts took advantage of three missed free throws and a  turnover to piece together an 8-to-1 run and pull within four points with four seconds left. Arkese Claiborne made a final free throw to take the final to 89-84.

"It's really hard to run away from teams on the road," Head Coach Dan Pruessner said of the late Stevenson push. "We knew it was coming. They hit some threes and we got a did not make our free throws or finish well at the rim in the final 12 minutes, and they closed the gap. That being said, it was good to see this group battle the way they did to get the win. AJ was really good, and Zubair competed really well inside. We had a couple really good practices coming into today and were not surprised by the way we started."

This evening's game was supposed to be played on Saturday, but threat of ice on the roads pushed it back to tonight. That change gives the Eagles three road games this week.

"We will get home late tonight," Pruessner continued," and we will have a short practice tomorrow to get ready for Wednesday. We are hoping that we can take some momentum from some of the good things we did today to Alvernia and Hood."

Lee finished with a 13 point and 11 rebound double-double. Nick Mate also had 13 points off the bench. Sherman and Williams each had 12 and Claiborne had 11. The Eagles finished the game at nearly 52 percent from the floor, but they made only 17-of-30 from the foul line.

Stevenson forward Cameron Smith scored 20 points and reached the 1000 point mark for his career. Cameron Sapienza scored 15 of his  game-high 23 points in the second half.

The Eagles are at Alvernia on Wednesday and then will travel to Hood on Saturday.