DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Seniors Brandon Caputo, Danny Krazit, Glenn Dalcourt, David Butler and Brett Rawlings led the seventh-ranked Embry-Riddle men's basketball team to an 81-65 victory over Sun Conference foe Warner on Wednesday, which was Senior Night and the Eagles' final home game of the regular season. An emotionally charged night began when those five individuals were recognized before the contest, along with fellow senior Will Benjamin who was not at Wednesday's game due to the passing of his father. With thoughts of Benjamin, the team's emotional leader, on their minds, the seniors combined for 58 points to improve the Eagles record to 25-4 overall and 12-3 in league play.

After controlling the opening tip, the Eagles got off to one of their strongest starts of the season offensively. Dalcourt drained a three-pointer to begin the scoring and proceeded to score the next six Eagle points to help ERAU to a 10-2 lead. Dalcourt and Rawlings connected on five of the Eagles' seven three-point attempts in the first six minutes and Rawlings' second long-range shot of the night made the score 21-7 in favor of the Eagles.

Embry-Riddle was able to build the lead to as many as 16 points, but at the 9:11 mark, Allan Keen hit one of his three first-half three-pointers and that basket marked the start of a Warner comeback. Over the next two minutes, the teams' fortunes were totally reversed and the Eagles, who seemed unable to miss early, could not connect on any of their subsequent attempts, while the Royals scored on five straight trips down the floor and tied the score at 30-30 with 5:49 remaining in the half.

Warner took advantage of Embry-Riddle's struggles to get its offense going again and after moving ahead for the first time at the 3:44 mark, they eventually extended the cushion to six points. With 58 seconds showing on the game clock and the Eagles down by four, Dalcourt was forced to call a timeout as the players on the floor for ERAU seemed out of sync offensively. The senior's passion for his team was evident as he exhorted his teammates on their way of the floor. On the Royals' next possession, Dalcourt forced a turnover with just one second left, but his heave from half court bounced high off the rim, allowing Warner to take a 39-35 lead into the halftime break.

Dalcourt's inspired play at the end of the first period seemed to reenergize the Eagles and coming out of the break, they rattled off 11 points to the Royals' four to retake the lead, 48-43 with 16:30 left to play.  Over the next five and a half minutes the Eagles maintained a seven to nine-point advantage. At the 10:50 mark, Ray Graham converted on back-to-back lay-ups, which sparked an 18-6 Eagle run that allowed ERAU to widen the gap to 19 with 2:27 left in the contest.

After managing just 11 of their 31 shots (35 percent) from the field in the first half, the Eagles shot 54.5 percent (18-of-33) from the field in the second stanza. A team that came into the game averaging 66 percent in free throw shooting on the year, Embry-Riddle was 74 percent from the charity stripe led by a perfect 4-for-4 from Blake Touchard. The Eagles also proved to be the better team on the boards, out-rebounding the Royals 42-29 on the way to the 16-point win.

Butler and Dalcourt tallied 19 points apiece with Butler pulling down 10 rebounds and Dalcourt registering three steals and two assists. Rawlings had 17 points and seven boards and Krazit got his only points of the night courtesy of a three-pointer in the second half to go with two assists. Caputo led all players with six assists and added five rebounds, while Graham added 12 points and nine rebounds in the win.

Allan Keen was the high scorer for the Royals with 18 points. Warner drops to 14-13 on the year and 7-9 in the conference. Warner also got double-digit scoring from Brennan Taylor (12), Malcolm Campbell (11) and Adam Branch (10).

The Eagles will close out regular season play at 7 p.m. on Saturday when they travel to Babson Park, Fla. to take on Webber International in the final Sun Conference fixture of 2011.