After nearly a month off, the Eastern University Men's basketball team returned to action Wednesday night in a non-conference game against MAC-Commonwealth favorites Widener. The Eagles used balanced scoring and a 16-6 burst in the second half to pull out a 76-70 road win to start the second semester.

Fits and starts to start
The game began with both teams struggling to handle the ball as the host Pride stumbled to 10 first-half turnovers and the Eagles returned the favor with nine giveaways. Widener's Terry Smith scored the first four points of the game on inside baskets to give the Pride an early lead. After a nifty inside lay-up from Matt Malloy cut the Widener lead in half, the hosts responded with an Essien Ford three pointer to go up 7-2. The Pride hit six three pointers in the first half, and eventually built their advantage to six at 12-6.

Eastern co-captain Lenny DiMaria responded to the deficit with a three point play in the paint. The smaller Eagles committed to going inside through the opening frame as they shot 63% from inside the arc for the opening frame. Mike Johnson again led the way to the basket early as he scored a pair of inside buckets and picked up a three en route to eight first half points.

Contributions off the Bench
As in previous games, the Coach Nadelhoffer got quality minutes off the bench. After Johnson picked up his second foul with five minutes to play, sophomore Tyrone Coleman saw his first action of the year and performed well keeping the bigger Pride posts off the board. Despite the size advantage inside, the hosts grew comfortable on the perimeter and hit only eight interior buckets for the opening half.

Dylan Lee and Jason Reels also came off the bench to help bolster the Eagles interior presence. Widener had a chance to go up three at the end of the half, but a missed dunk gave the Eagles the ball back and Coleman hit a midrange jumper as the clock expired to give Eastern a 37-36 halftime lead.

Second Half Runs
Eastern jumped out to a quick five point advantage on an inside basket from Johnson and a pair of DiMaria free throws, but Pride forward Malcolm Thomas scored a remarkable 15 points in a 20-11 run that lifted the Pride to a 56-52 advantage with eight minutes to play.

After a Ford three-pointer put the Pride up four, the Eagles got the ball inside to Matt Malloy, but his inside shot was blocked by the taller Smith, and the Pride seemed to gain momentum. As he did in the Misericordia game, junior guard Brent Williams announced his presence with a steal and a lay-up to cut the lead in half and swing momentum back. Williams lay-up keyed the pivotal 16-6 burst of the game that lifted the Eagles to the victory. The 5'7" guard from Easton scored nine points in the last eight minutes of the game to play a pivotal role for the second time in three games.

Junior co-captain David Volpe hit one of his three three-pointers of the game with just over six minutes to play to give the visiting Eagles a lead that they would not relinquish. After Volpe stole a ball at mid-court and the Eagles ran some clock, Williams drove into the paint and lifted a floater over a pair of defenders to push the lead to 60-56.

Eagles close game out
Despite a pair of threes from Ford in the waning minutes, the Eagles were able to hit their free throws, take care of the ball and the clock to earn their fifth victory in their last six games. DiMaria continued to score efficiently with 18 points on just 11 shots, and Volpe pitched in with 18 points. Johnson again filled the stat line with twelve points, five assists, five rebounds, a pair of steals and a block. More importantly, Johnson committed just one turnover in 31 minutes and a lot of time on the ball. Williams registered a career high 10 points in just 17 minutes of action. Malloy led the Eagles on the boards with nine.

The Pride were led by Thomas who put together a 26 point 15 board double- double and Ford who scored twenty points on 5-10 from behind the arc. The Eagles reached the line 23 times for the game and hit 12-15 in the second half to hold the lead. Widener shot just two second half free throws.

After giving up six threes in the opening half, Eastern shut down the Pride three-point barrage in the second half as the hosts hit just 3-13 from behind the arc. In addition, the Eagles continued to shoot 50% while taking much better care of the basketball.

Eastern will have very little time to celebrate as they turn around to host Delaware Valley College in another non-conference game tomorrow.

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