DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The 15th-ranked Southeastern men's basketball team survived a second-half rally by Embry-Riddle to escape the ICI Center with an 89-82 win in Sun Conference play on Wednesday. The win moved the Fire to 3-0 in conference play and 11-5 overall, while the Eagles fall to 10-7 and 1-2 in league play.
For the second straight game,
Blake Touchard (Los Angeles, Calif.) was the Eagles' top scorer, leading all players with 26 points.
Ray Graham (DeLand, Fla.) got his sixth double-double of the season with 21 points and 13 rebounds, while
DeForest Carter (Montverde, Fla.) dished out a game-high five assists to go with six points and eight rebounds off the bench.
Jeremiah Applin (Dayton, Ohio) rounded out the Eagles' double-digit scoring with 11 points.
Southeastern scored the first basket of the game and never relinquished the lead in the first frame. All 10 players who took the court for the Fire got into the scoring column and helped visitors to a 51-36 halftime lead on 54.3 percent (19-35) shooting from the field and 44.4 percent (4-9) from beyond the arc.
The Eagles came out of the locker room following the halftime break with a renewed sense of purpose and outscored the Fire 14-2 over the first seven minutes of the frame to pull within four points (54-50). A three-pointer by Dyami Thurman and a layup by Tim Jickell built the Southeastern lead back up to eight points (61-53) with 11:42 left to play, but baskets by
DeForest Carter on back-to-back Eagle possessions made it a four-point game once again.
After Southeastern scored four unanswered points to go back up by eight (65-57), Applin knocked down one of his three three-pointers to narrow the gap to 65-60 at the nine-minute mark. On the next Fire possession,
Billy Serle got a piece of Malcolm Pollock's (21 pts, 8 reb) layup attempt. Carter corralled the rebound and completed a quick outlet pass to Touchard who finished the layup to make it a three-point game. That play had Eagle fans on their feet but the momentum quickly shifted back in Southeastern's favor as Chris Carlyle (14 pts, 6 reb) hit a trey on the Fire's next trip down the court to make the score 68-62.
At the 6:03 mark, Graham brought the fans to their feet once again with a Touchard-assisted dunk to trim the margin to three points (70-67). While the Eagles were able to stay within striking distance, they were unable to get closer than three points and with 1:47 left in the contest, the Blue and Gold opted to slow the game down by sending Southeastern to the free throw line. The Fire responded by making eight of their last 10 free throws and held the Eagles to four points in the last minute of the game to pull out the win.
The Eagles will be back in action on Saturday when they travel to Babson Park to take on Webber International at 7 p.m.
