WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The second-seeded Embry-Riddle men's basketball team put on one of its strongest defensive performances of the year en route to an 86-57 victory in the semifinals of The Sun Conference Tournament on Friday. The Eagles, who lead the nation in defensive field goal percentage (38.1 percent), held the Royals to just 26 percent shooting from the field to improve to 28-4 on the year and earn a spot in the conference title game for the seventh year in a row.
The Eagles were consistent offensively shooting 45.7 percent from the field in each half of play. The Blue and Gold also did a good job of passing the ball and getting everyone involved on the offense as they registered assists on 22 of their 32 made baskets.
Ray Graham and
David Butler led the way with 14 points each, with Butler leading all players on the boards with 10 rebounds for his 13th double-double of the year.
Blake Touchard finished with 13 points and five assists and
Jarod Leonard totaled 11 points and four boards as 12 of the 13 players who saw action for the Blue and Gold got their names in the scoring column.
Graham scored the first six points of the contest on a pair of field goals and two free throws and Touchard scored the next three to give the Eagles an early 9-2 lead. After Warner's Brennan Taylor hit one of his two first-half three-pointers to make it a six-point game (11-5),
Glenn Dalcourt hit a jump shot from the left side and that score triggered a 13-2 run that increased the Eagle advantage to 17 (24-7) with 8:39 left in the half.
The Eagles, who are 39 percent from beyond the arc on the year, managed just one long-range basket in the first half, but they made up for the shortfall at the charity stripe where they were 8-of-10 and that helped them to a 41-24 lead at the intermission.
In the second half, ERAU improved its shooting from beyond the arc, connecting on seven of 18 attempts from the three-point line to match the season average. The Royals tried to use the long-range shot to get back into the game, but were bothered by the Eagle defense and made just one of their 21 three-point shots in the second half. The Eagles did a good job corralling the misses, out-rebounding the Royals 33-25 on the defensive boards and converting them into points on the scoreboard.
The Eagles will play for the conference tournament title at 7 p.m. on Saturday against the winner of Friday's nightcap between top-ranked and No. 1 seed Northwood and fourth-seeded Florida Memorial.
