DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The sixth-ranked Embry-Riddle men's basketball team showed no ill-effects from playing an extra five minutes on Friday evening as they put together a dominant performance to defeat No. 14 Northwood 70-49 in Sun Conference action. The win marked the first time in the four-year series that the Eagles have swept the Seahawks in regular season play. ERAU now stands at 21-4 overall and the Eagles have a firm grip on first place in The Sun Conference standings at 10-1.

Following a lackluster second-half performance on Friday evening, the Eagle defense came out with something to prove on Saturday. The Blue and Gold allowed just 18 Northwood shots in the first frame and contested all 18 shots, limiting the Seahawks to just 38.9 shooting from the field. The Eagles also worked hard on the boards, outrebounding the Seahawks 21-9 and claiming nine second chance points to Northwood's one.

It took a while for either offense to get something going as neither team was able to score in the first two minutes of play. Eric Lorenzi ended the stalemate with a three-pointer at the 17:54 mark and the Eagles grew the lead to 6-0, but the game was a low scoring affair in the first eight minutes as both teams combined for only 15 points with 12 minutes left in the first half.

A Patrick Horstmann jumper and a Melvin Calhoun free throw made it a two-point game at the 10:41 mark, but that was a close as the Seahawks would get. David Butler knocked down a jumper on the next Eagle possession and that sparked a 24-4 that ballooned the lead to 34-12 with 3:32 left in the half.

 Despite the sizeable lead, the Eagles, understanding that a talented Northwood line-up was capable of closing the gap, continued to battle on every possession. That fact was very much in evidence when Blake Touchard added the exclamation point at the end of the half with a stick-back  that left his hands just a fraction of a second before time expired. Touchard's extra effort gave the Eagles a comfortable 17-point cushion (38-21) heading into the locker room.

The Seahawks closed the rebounding gap (21-16) in the second half, but the Eagles continued to disrupt their offense, limiting the visitors to 31.7 shooting from the field. Embry-Riddle also recovered from a subpar performance from the charity stripe in Friday's game and finished the night with a 78.3 percent free throw performance en route to the 21-point win.

Butler led the Eagles with 19 points and joined Touchard and Glenn Dalcourt with seven rebounds apiece.  Dalcourt totaled 13 points, while Ray Graham and Lorenzi turned in solid all-around performances with 10 points each. Graham also had six boards and three assists and Lorenzi closed out the evening with nine boards, three assists and four steals.

Tyrone Davis gave the Seahawks a spark off the bench with a game-high 21 points to go with three assists and three rebounds. Northwood is now 19-5 overall and 8-4 in conference play.
The Eagles will three games in five days on the road beginning with a 7 p.m. contest against Edward Waters in Jacksonville on Tuesday.