Eastern jumped out to an early fifteen point lead on hot shooting and good interior passing. Joe Manzo checked into the game with the Eagles up 16-9 and then proceeded to set up Mike Johnson with a nifty pass underneath and then put together a 9-2 run of his own on three two pointers and a long three.
Corey Copeland, who finished the game with 10 points for the Eagles, stretched the advantage to 16 when he buried a deep three on a kickout from Johnson. After both teams traded baskets and free throws, Johnson lifted the Eagles to their biggest lead of the game at 18 on a thunderous two handed dunk with just under three minutes left in the half. Stuart Slattery hit a bucket and Bobby Mulholland hit his second three of the game to pull the Scarlet Knights to within 13 before a late Manzo bucket lifted the advantage to 43-28 at the intermission.
Manzo, Bryan Nadelhoffer, and Johnson controlled the inside and shot 11/11 in the first half for the Eagles. In a harbinger of things to come, Mulholland hit two threes to lead the Scarlet Knights with six first half points.
The second half started at a fast, but not unreasonable pace with Copeland putting in a couple buckets and Bobby Black connecting on his third three of the game. But the visitors behind seven points from Eric Elliot, six points from Andrew Martin and another three from Mulholland cut the Eastern lead to 8 with just under six minutes gone. In an alarming trend for the hosts, the Scarlet Knights didn't seem to be missing any shots. Three pointers from Sterling Green and Slattery confirmed that Arcadia was on fire from deep. After Bobby Black and Matt Flanagan answered with two deep balls at the other end to push the advantage back to seven, Arcadia answered right back with deep balls from Mulholland, and Slattery. Manzo and Flanagan responded with threes to pushthe advantage back to seven before Green hit another three.
With just over seven minutes to play, Mulholland stole a ball just outside the Eastern three point line. After the steal, Volpe chased him down and hit him as he was picking up the ball to go for the basket. Mulholland muscled the ball into the basket and was awarded the basket, two foul shots, and the ball for an intentional foul. He made the second free throw to cut the Eastern lead to 71-70.
Eastern senior Chris McMonagle hit a pair of free throws and answered a Slattery bucket with one of his own to keep the lead at three. Lenny DiMaria pushed the advantage to five on a driving basket, but Mulholland answered with his fifth three of the game to get the guests right back in it. With four minutes left, Nadelhoffer dropped in two foul shots, but the Knights gained a point back in the exchange when Mulholland buried another three.
DiMaria connected on two foul shots before Mulholland tied the game at 81 with his seventh three of the contest. After an Eagle turnover, Green connected on his fourth three of the game, and the Knights were able to ice the game and push the lead to seven on foul shots late.
Coach Nadelhoffer said of the game, "Up fifteen at the half, you know that they are going to have to go crazy to come back at you, but we can't let a team shoot 86% from three point range and 75% for a half and expect to win. We played well for twenty minutes and then tried to rely on our offense to win the game. We will have to play better to win games in this league.
Mulholland led all scorers with 27 on 7-8 from the three point line. Green, Slattery, Elliot, and Martin all joined him in double figures as Arcadia connected for 64 second half points. The Eagles, led by Manzo with 14, put five players in double figures. The Eagles have very little time to recover as they host Neumann on Thursday night.