DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. ?  For the fourth game in a row, senior Tyler DeBord outscored everyone else who took the floor to lead the seventh-ranked Embry-Riddle men's basketball team to a tough 61-57 win over Sun Conference foe Florida Memorial, Wednesday at the ICI Center. The reigning Sun Conference Player of the Week, DeBord totaled 23 points and seven rebounds as the Eagles improved their record to 17-2 overall and 3-0 in league play.

The Eagles struggled from the field in the first half, connecting on only 36 percent (12-33) of their shot attempts. The Eagles, whose season average from beyond the arc is 35.6 percent, struggled from long range making only one of their 15 three-point attempts.

Despite their shooting woes, the Eagles, led by 14 first-half points from Tyler DeBord, found themselves only down by one point, 31-30 at the halftime break.

The Lions started out the game with six unanswered points, but the Eagles quickly caught up and took over the lead at 7-6 with 13:16 left in the half.  ERAU led by as many as six (20-14) with 5:39 to go, but three-pointers by Mark Rolle and Adrian White allowed the Lions to move ahead of the Blue and Gold once again.

Florida Memorial led by three with 58 seconds until the intermission, but Ray Graham grabbed a rebound off a Danny Krazit miss and slammed home one of his three dunks on the night to pull Embry-Riddle within one, making the score 31-30 at the half.

The Lions led for the first 7:15 of the second half until Danny Krazit hit a pair of free throws to knot the score at 40. Both teams traded baskets over the next six minutes, resulting in a 48-48 tie at the 6:04 mark.

Krazit was instrumental in the Eagles reclaiming a six point lead. He assisted on Eric Lorenzi's three-pointer and then raced down to the other end of the floor and drew a charge against the Lions leading scorer, Andre Thomas, recovering possession for the Eagles. On the ensuing possession, Danny Deaver corralled an offensive rebound and got the ball back to Krazit who laid in two of his nine points and drew a foul in the process. He sank the resulting free throw to put the Blue and Gold up by six with 4:10 remaining.

Over the next 2:30, the Lions outscored the Eagles 8-3 to make it a one point game with less than two minutes to play. Following a missed three-pointer by Deaver with 1:22 to go, the Lions had the ball with a chance to reclaim the lead. However, back-to-back steals by Denver Cobb on consecutive possessions allowed the Eagles to convert on four consecutive free throws and seal the win.

The Eagles' next game will be at 7 p.m. on Saturday when they travel to Jacksonville to take on Edward Waters.