News Release

GWYNEDD VALLEY, PA — Eastern defeated Gwynedd-Mercy, 73-65, Wednesday evening in Pennsylvania Athletic Conference action at the Griffin Complex. The Griffins fall to 6-11 and 4-6 in the PAC while Eastern improves to 13-5 and 8-3 in league play.

Junior Frank Barder came off the bench to score a team-high and career-high 15 points while junior Chris DelBrocco added 13.

Lenny DiMaria scored 19 of his game-high 23 points in the first half for the Eagles, who won their fourth in a row.

The Griffins held a 10-point lead midway in the first half before a 19-9 run by Eastern to close the stanza helped to deadlock the contest 34-34 at the break.

Back-to-back treys from Bobby Black and David Volpe capped an early 8-0 run by the Eagles as Eastern took a 46-38 lead with just over 14 minutes to play.

But the Griffins rallied, using senior Francis Bowe's three-pointer to tie the contest at 51-51 at the 10 minute mark.

The teams traded buckets over the next eight minutes before the Eagles' Ben Easley helped put the game away. Easley hit two free-throws to take a 65-63 lead with 2:11 left then forced a turnover and steal. He was fouled and hit two more from the line for a four-point lead with 1:54 remaining. His steal on the inbound pass led to another bucket for a commanding six-point edge.

Easley finished with 14 points while Black netted 11 and Mike Johnson chipped in 10. The Eagles hit 41.4% (24-of-58) from the floor. Gwynedd was 27-of-64 (42.2%) but hit just 3-of-15 from downtown and were outrebounded, 43-37.

Newspaper Box Score
01/25/06 7 p.m. at Griffin Complex - Gwynedd Valley, Pa.
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EASTERN UNIVERSITY 73, GWYNEDD-MERCY COLLEGE 65

EASTERN UNIVERSITY (13-5, 8-3 PAC)
Lenny DiMaria 6-11 7-10 23; Ben Easley 4-9 5-5 14; Bobby Black 5-17 0-0 11;
Mike Johnson 4-6 2-6 10; David Volpe 2-6 0-0 6; Chris McMonagle 2-3 0-0 4;
Corey Copeland 0-3 2-2 2; Bryan Nadelhoffer 1-2 0-0 2; Matt Flanagan 0-1 1-3
1. Totals 24-58 17-26 73.

GWYNEDD-MERCY COLLEGE (6-11, 4-6 PAC)
Frank Barder 6-10 3-4 15; Chris DelBrocco 6-17 0-1 13; Jack Forth 4-7 0-1 9;
Francis Bowe 3-5 2-2 9; Larz Jeter 3-3 1-1 7; Kevin Lauer 3-6 0-0 6; Rashid
Santiago 2-5 0-0 4; Tom Keenan 0-3 1-2 1; Haven Wroten 0-5 1-2 1; Dave
McFadden 0-1 0-0 0; Rick Haas 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 27-64 8-13 65.
Eastern University............   34   39  -   73
Gwynedd-Mercy College.........   34   31  -   65

3-point goals-Eastern University 8-26 (Lenny DiMaria 4-6; David Volpe 2-4;
Ben Easley 1-2; Bobby Black 1-10; Matt Flanagan 0-1; Corey Copeland 0-3),
Gwynedd-Mercy College 3-15 (Chris DelBrocco 1-6; Jack Forth 1-3; Francis
Bowe 1-2; Rashid Santiago 0-1; Tom Keenan 0-1; Frank Barder 0-2). Fouled
out--Eastern University-None, Gwynedd-Mercy College-Francis Bowe.
Rebounds-Eastern University 43 (Lenny DiMaria 8), Gwynedd-Mercy College 37
(Kevin Lauer 8). Assists-Eastern University 15 (Corey Copeland 3; Mike
Johnson 3; Chris McMonagle 3; Bobby Black 3), Gwynedd-Mercy College 9 (Kevin
Lauer 2; Jack Forth 2). Total fouls-Eastern University 17, Gwynedd-Mercy
College 20. A-200
Pennsylvania Athletic Conference Game