MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle men's basketball team came away from the new Fernandez Family Center with a 70-68 overtime win over St. Thomas on Saturday. With the win, the Eagles avenged a loss to the Bobcats earlier in the season and clinched at least a share of The Sun Conference regular season crown with a 12-2 conference mark and a 23-5 overall record.


The game was a physical defensive battle from the first whistle with both teams applying strong ball pressure. Neither team was able to establish much of a rhythm offensively, and that was evident on the scoreboard as both teams combined for 15 points in the first eight minutes with St. Thomas holding a slim 8-7 lead.

With 11:16 remaining in the first half, Eric Lorenzi rebounded a David Butler miss and that second-chance effort triggered a 9-2 Eagle run that resulted in an 18-10 lead with 7:35 left. The Bobcats went on a mini run of their own to close the gap to three (19-16) with 5:34 left in the half, but the Eagles withstood the pressure and rebuilt the lead to take 31-20 advantage into the locker room at the half.

Coming out of the break, St. Thomas made a strong push offensively. They outscored the Blue and Gold 12-4 in the first six minutes of the second half to tie the score at 35 apiece with 13:24 left in the game. Once again the Eagles were able to bounce back and at the 9:03 mark, they had an 11-point cushion at 47-36.

The last six minutes of the second half belonged to St. Thomas guard Antonio Jones. With the exception of a jumper by Patrick Louissant and a jumper and a three-pointer by Kristaps Brencans, Jones was responsible for 14 of the Bobcats last 21 points of the half, including a pair of free throws at the end of regulation that sent the game into overtime.

Defense was a key factor again in the overtime period that featured three ties and four lead changes over the five-minute stretch. With 29 seconds showing on the clock, Lorenzi was fouled, and after hitting just three of his seven free throw attempts during regulation, the senior knocked two down from the charity stripe in overtime to give the Eagles a three-point cushion. Jones wasted little time taking the ball down the floor and hit his second three of the night to knot the score at 68 with 24 seconds left.

The Eagles got the ball to the halfway line on the ensuing inbounds play and with 12 seconds remaining, ERAU head coach Steve Ridder used his last time out to draw up a play. Coming out of the huddle, the Eagles got the ball to Lorenzi and once again, the senior took responsibility for his team, drilling an off-balance jumper to put the Eagles up by two (70-68) with 1.2 seconds left to play.

St. Thomas burned its final timeout to set up a play of its own and was able to successfully able to get the ball to Jones. But Jones could not come up with any more magic as he lost his footing and the Bobcats' last chance at scoring to give the Eagles the win.

Lorenzi and Butler each posted double-double performances with Lorenzi scoring 22 points to go with 13 rebounds and Butler tallying 19 points and 13 boards of his own. Blake Touchard added 16 points, while Ray Graham finished with eight rebounds.

Jones led all scorers with 32 points and was aided by 10 points from Brencans as the Bobcats fall to 10-14 overall and 6-8 in league play.

The Eagles close out the regular season at home next week with a game against Warner on Wednesday and another against Webber International on Saturday. Both games are slated for 7 p.m. at the ICI Center.