DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – For the second year in a row, Embry-Riddle men's basketball's “Senior Night” happened to coincide with the Eagles' game against Warner. For the second year in a row the Eagles came out on the winning end of The Sun Conference battle as they upended the No. 21 Royals 75-66 at the ICI Center on Monday. For Ray Graham and Blake Touchard it was the final regular season home contest of their collegiate careers and the duo led ERAU to a win that snapped a four-game losing skid and improved the Eagles' record to 16-12 overall and 7-7 in league play.
 
The backgrounds for both teams heading into Monday's were considerably different, as the Royals were fresh of their upset of top-ranked Northwood on the road, while the Eagles were trying to get back into the win column for the first time in five games. In the first meeting of the season, Warner handled the Eagles on the Royals' home court. In the second edition of the 2011-12 series, ERAU scored the first points of the game against the Royals and ERAU never looked back.
 
Touchard opened the contest with a three-pointer and that proved to be the spark the Eagles needed out of the gate as ERAU rattled off nine unanswered points. A stingy defense held the Royal offense at bay and at the 16:32 mark, the home team led by 12 (13-1) prompting a Warner timeout. Coming out of the huddle, the Royals managed a layup and a pair of free throws and a Bryce Kachinski three made it a seven-point (15-8) game with 14:21 left in the half, but the Eagles quickly built the lead back up to 13 and still held that advantage with 7:33 remaining in the first frame.
 
A trey by Ray Victor started a 7-0 run that pulled Warner back within four (29-25) at the 5:05 mark. From that point, Graham and Touchard took over the ERAU offense. The senior duo scored the last 11 Eagle points of the half and had ERAU ahead, 40-29, at the intermission.
 
Three consecutive baskets by David Westberry added seven points to the Warner score sheet and cut the ERAU lead to six (42-36) just three minutes into the second frame. The Eagles were able to withstand the rally and outscored the Royals 9-0 over the next five minutes to widen the gap to 51-36. That margin eventually grew to 17 and ERAU hovered between a 12 and 15-point advantage until layups by Westberry and Malcolm Campbell, and a three by Deonte Moore made the score 69-62 with just over a minute remaining.
 
A Carter layup put the Eagles back up by nine and ERAU had a chance to add to its tally when Daniel Mondragon corralled a Warner miss and was sent to the free throw line after being fouled. Mondragon missed the front end of the one-and-one and the Royals found Brandon Poore on the quick outlet for his only bucket of the night to make it a seven-point game again.
 
After grabbing a Campbell miss, Graham was fouled, resulting in two Eagle free throws. Up to that point in the game, Graham was only 4-of-10 from the charity stripe, but the senior stepped up to the line and knocked down his last two attempts in the ICI Center to give the Eagles a 73-64 lead. Moore hit another layup with 10 seconds left but then fouled Jeremiah Applin who sank both of his free throws to seal the Eagle win.
 
Graham finished as the game's high scorer with 24 points and his 11 rebounds helped the senior to his 10th double-double of the year. Freshman DeForest Carter also turned in a double-double performance with 19 points and 10 boards to go with five assists, two steals and two blocks. Touchard completed the Eagles' double-digit scorers with 11 points and added four assists and seven rebounds in his ICI Center regular season finale.
 
The Warner offense was led by Ian Wilhelm (12 pts), Victor (11 pts) and Kachinski (10 pts). The Eagle defense frustrated Campbell, the Royals' leading scorer, as the senior managed just nine points, well below his 17.4 points per game average. Campbell led all players on the boards with 13 rebounds as the Royals move to 19-9 overall and 8-6 in the conference.
 
The Eagles will close out the regular season on the road this weekend when they travel to Miami for a pair of conference fixtures. The Eagles will take on No. 13 St. Thomas at 7 p.m. on Thursday and end the road trip with a 7 p.m. game at Florida Memorial on Saturday.