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ASTON, Pa,- The winner of tonight’s
PAC men’s basketball showdown
between Neumann College and Eastern
University would gain a critical
ninth win in the league and take a
big step towards securing a playoff
berth. The Eastern University Eagles
jumped out of the gates to a 32-4
lead and placed all five starters in
double figures in an 82-68 road win.
The early Eagles run bordered on the
surreal as Ty Coleman scored off a
pass from Mike Johnson. Johnson
converted two straight inside
buckets, and then the threes started
to fall. The Eagles hit five shots
in a row with four coming from
behind the arc. The Knights
meanwhile, struggled to find inside
shots and were unable to connect on
the contested three-pointers at the
other end. Meanwhile the three
Eastern bigs all converted three
pointers as Coleman drained a pair
and Johnson and Matt Malloy also
drained open looks from the
perimeter.
Lenny DiMaria then took his turn
scoring, as the senior guard scored
ten of twelve points for the Eagles
as they pushed the lead to 32-4.
Michael Hitchens helped stem the
tide a bit for the Knights with two
straight baskets, but the Eagles
were able to use a pair of three
pointers from David Volpe to extend
their lead to the biggest of the
first half at 43-14.
The Knights began to find the range
from distance and forced the Eagles
into several turnovers as they put
together a 14-2 run before Mike
Johnson ended the half with a nice
finish on a lob pass from Volpe.
The Eagles went into the half up
47-28. Johnson, DiMaria, and Coleman
went to the locker room with double
figure scoring and the Eagles
connected on 7 of 11 from behind the
arc. Also of importance, the Eagles
held the Knights to 35% shooting and
a 4 of 14 performance from behind
the arc in the opening frame.
After the Knights scored the opening
basket of the second half on an
inside basket from Leon Dales, the
Eagles responded with an 18-5 run to
take a 67-37 lead. Malloy hit for
ten points in the run, and Volpe hit
a pair of threes to put the game
into what seemed to be safe zone.
The Knights made a run behind the
outside shooting of DJ Fritz, who
hit for twenty points in the last
fifteen minutes of the game, and
Michael Hitchens, who scored nine of
his 20 points in the closing ten
minutes. The Knights cut the deficit
to 14 with four minutes to play, but
Volpe again stroked a three, his
fifth in six attempts, to ice the
game for the Eagles.
The Eagles placed all five starters
in double figures and shot 59% in
the second half. Volpe led the way
for the Eagles with 21. DiMaria
added 18 and six rebounds, Malloy
scored 16 points on just nine field
goal attempts and picked up a season
high eight assists to go with six
rebounds. Coleman turned in another
efficient scoring performance as he
scored 14 on just seven shots. Mike
Johnson scored all his points in the
decisive first half, but also picked
up five assists three blocks and a
pair of steals in an all around
game.
Coach Nadelhoffer said of the game,
“They (Neumann) are a scary team to
play against, because they keep
coming at you, but I thought our
team did a great job of coming ready
to play today. They could not have
executed our game plan any better
than they did in the opening ten
minutes of the game. We know that we
can shoot a high percentage when we
take care of the ball, and we felt
that we could do some things that
would make things difficult for
them. The guys knew what was on the
line, and they made things happen.”
The Eagles, now 9-6 in the PAC, will
play non-conference home games on
Saturday and Monday before returning
to PAC play in one week at Cabrini.
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