ST. DAVIDS, Pa. — Eastern University Men's Basketball made free throws late to pul past the visiting Stevenson University Mustangs for an important 64-61 MAC Commonwealth win. Over the final two minutes, the Eagles (8-13, 5-5) scored seven of the final ten points to erase a 58-57 Mustang lead and stay alive in their pursuit of a spot in the post-season.  DaRon Sherman scored a team-high 13 points as the Eagles won scoring less than 70 points for the first time since beating Messiah 60-53 in February of 2024.

Eastern won the earlier match-up between the two teams despite trailing nearly the whole game and being down over 20 points int he second half. Today, the Mustangs (10-11, 2-8) looked poised to flip the tables as they used physical post defense to erase an 11-point Eastern lead and pull ahead for the first time on a Miles Jackson three-point play with 1:58 on the clock.

Down for the first time, the Eagles put the ball in the hands of Connor Fleet. The Stevenson defense jostled the ball free, but Fleet claimed it back and delivered a flawless bounce pass to Dejuan Taylor for a lay-in and a 59-58 lead. The Eastern defense forced Stevenson into a contested 3-pointer. Olyse Onyeka went high to secure his tenth rebound of the game and quickly found Fleet.

Fleet made both his free throws for a three-point lead and the Eastern defense again did a good job contesting the deep shot and Mason Lewis pulled in his eighth rebound and made two shots from the line. The sophomore guard did not play in the first meeting between the two squads but made an impact today with eight points and eight rebounds and a strong defensive effort against Kole Beaman. Stevenson's leading scorer hit a late 3-pointer to close the gap to two with two seconds left, but he finished five points below his average with only 11 points and was 1-for-8 from range.

Onyeka split a pair from the line for the final margin and to collect his team-best 13th double-double.

Eastern shot only 41 percent from the floor and had 20 turnovers against pressure from the smaller Stevenson line-up.

Despite their offensive struggles, the Eagles did enough to collect the win. With Alvernia losing to Albright, Eastern moves into a tie with the Golden Wolves in the fourth spot in the league.

The Eagles led 33-23 at half thanks in large part to an aggressive performance off the bench from Justin Ezeukwu. In eight-and-a-half minutes on the court,  first-year guard made all four of his shots and led the Eagles with 11 points and two steals at the break. The Mustangs made only 2-of-11 first-half 3-point attempts and were only 9-of-26 overall.

The Mustangs worked the game to a tie at 42-42 at the second media timeout, but Fleet scored back-to-back baskets to put the Eagles back up. The lead grew to seven, but never got bigger than that. Stevenson guard Myles Jackson led the comeback effort and finished with a game-high 18.

The Eastern bench scored only two points in the second half, but it was a noisy and important bask as Josh Fadahunsi slammed home a pass from Lewis to put the Eagles up six with five minutes left. Fadahunsi finished the game with three rebounds and three blocked shots in extended minutes.

"Justin was huge for us in the first half," Head Coach Dan Pruessner said after the game. "With Nick [Mate] out today, we needed to stretch the floor somehow and he made a couple threes and got to the rim. I also thought Mason did a good job on their guy."

Fleet finished the game with 12 points and four assists.

The Eagles will travel to Messiah University on Wednesday with the opportunity to set up a huge set of games down the stretch.

"The last three only matter if we get the next one," Pruessner added.

Though the Eagles ran away from the Falcons in the first meeting, Messiah has been in every game of late, and the Eagles shot exceptionally well from deep in the first meeting.