DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—The Florida Memorial men's basketball team brought an 8-9 record into the ICI Center and gave fourth-ranked Embry-Riddle a tough Sun Conference battle, but in the end the Eagles prevailed holding off the Lions 88-82. The Eagles are now 17-2 overall and 5-1 in the league, while the Lions fall to 8-10 overall and 4-3 in league play.

ERAU received a balanced scoring performance from their starting-five, as all five registered double-digit performances. David Butler led the way with his seventh double-double of the year on 23 points and 10 rebounds to go with his three blocks. Blake Touchard also had a double-double with 10 points and a season-high 10 assists. Brandon Caputo recorded season-highs in scoring (11 points) and rebounding (8), while Glenn Dalcourt and Ray Graham finished with 17 points and 14 points, respectively.

Both teams exchanged baskets in the opening minutes of play, resulting in a 4-4 tie at the 17:13 mark. The Eagles, who made seven of their next eight shot attempts, capitalized on just 1-of-5 shooting by the Lions over the next four minutes to open up a 12-point (18-6) lead.

Florida Memorial was able to work its way out of the brief slump behind the three-point shooting of Donovan McLendon. McLendon scored 10 of the Lions' next 16 points during their comeback and his trey at the 7:45 mark gave FMU its first lead of the game, 25-22. 

The Lions held a four-point advantage until a three by Glenn Dalcourt and a free throw by Jarod Leonard drew the Eagles level at 28-28 with 3:24 remaining in the half.  Florida Memorial was able to regain the lead two more times, but each time, the Eagles had an answer and after knotting the score (33-33) for the sixth time in the period, the Blue and Gold outscored the Lions 5-2 in the final 1:53 to take a 40-35 lead into the locker room at the half.

The Eagles carried that momentum into the second half of play and quickly built the advantage up to 10 (51-41) with 16:11 to play. The Blue and Gold maintained a lead between five and eight points until a jumper by McClendon at the 10:40 mark sparked a 9-1 run that put Florida Memorial back in front, 60-59.

Over the next two minutes, each team managed to claim the lead, but neither was able to maintain an advantage as the lead changed six times during that stretch. With 5:57 left on the clock, Brett Rawlings knocked down his only three of the night to put ERAU up by one (68-67). That long-range shot swung the momentum firmly back in the Eagles' favor as they outscored the Lions 14-5 on the way to an 82-72 cushion with 1:12 left to play.

Florida Memorial made it a six-point game with a minute to go and resorted to fouling the Eagles to try and get back into the game. But after shooting just 66.7 percent in the first half, ERAU, led by Dalcourt who was 6-for-6 from the free throw line, converted on 10 of its last 13 free throw attempts to secure the win.

McClendon was the game's high scorer with 25 points, while George Gray added 17 points in the Lions' effort.

The Eagles' next game will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday when they host St. Thomas in another Sun Conference battle at the ICI Center.