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The Eastern University Men's
Basketball team held the College
Misericordia Cougars to just 27%
shooting and executed just well
enough on the offensive end to earn
a 60-43 home win. Matt Malloy led
all scorers with 14 points and also
chipped in a game high 10 rebounds
for the Eagles.
The game opened with the visiting
Cougars opening a quick 7-2 lead on
a inside baskets from Ryan Roa and
Matt Hornak sandwiched around a
Vinny Baumunk three pointer. Eastern
responded with a 24-3 run over the
next ten minutes to take command of
the game. Lenny DiMaria sparked the
run with consecutive three pointers
to tie the game at seven and to take
the lead at 10-7. The Eagles forced
the COugars into thirteen straight
misses from behind the arc and just
two field goals in the last 16
minutes of the opening half.
The Eagles hit 5/10 from behind the
arc in the opening half including a
buzzer beater by Mike Johnson on a
well executed kickout from David
Volpe. Eastern's 34-17 halftime was
the team's biggest advantage at the
break all year.
Malloy and Johnson led the Eagles
into the break with eight points and
six rebounds a piece. Johnson also
added four assists and a pair of
blocked shots. Baumunk led the
Cougars with five points at the
break.
In the second half the game became
very slow as the Eagles sought to
take each possession down below ten
on the shot clock and the Cougars
continued to try to find inside
baskets against an Eastern defense
that was protecting the inside.
Malloy and DiMaria opened the Eagle
scoring in the second half with back
to back three pointers over four
minutes into the half to push the
Eagle lead to 40-18.
The Cougars never cut the gap to
less than 16 points for the
remainder of the night, and they
were unable to find an offensive
rhythm against the Eastern half
court defense. Eleven different
Eastern players scored as the Eagles
shot 56% for the game. Coach
Nadelhoffer said of the game, "Our
defensive intensity was very good,
and when we took care of the ball,
we shot very well, but we are going
to have to do a better job taking
care of the basketball if we are
going to win big games coming up.
I'm really pleased with the work we
did to keep them from getting easy
baskets in the first half."
Eastern improves to 10-7 overall and
7-5 in PAC play and will travel to
Alvernia on Saturday.
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