Miami Gardens, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle men's basketball team suffered its second loss of the season to St. Thomas, falling to the 13th-ranked Bobcats, 75-72 on Thursday evening. With the loss, the Eagles hold onto fifth place in the conference race at 7-8 and are 16-13 overall.

The Eagles had a better shooting night than Bobcats, hitting 52.1 percent from the field versus a 44.6 output by STU. ERAU also had a slight edge in shots from long range, knocking down 36.8 percent (7-of-19) of its threes compared to a 35.3 percent (6-of-17) by the Bobcats. The difference came at the free throw line; each team made 27 trips to the charity stripe, but while the Bobcats made 19 of their attempts, the Eagles managed just 15 made free throws.

Ray Graham paced the Eagles' offense with 21 points, just one point more that teammate Blake Touchard who finished with 20. Graham, Touchard and Cesar Pastrana finished with six rebounds apiece, while DeForest Carter dished out a game-high eight assists to go with 10 points on the night.

Eugene Davis came off the bench to lead the Bobcats with a game-high 24 points, while Kevin Hincapie added 20 for St. Thomas who improved to 20-7 on the year and 13-2 in the league.

The Eagle offense got off to a good start as Graham and Pastrana combined for 14 of the Eagles' first 16 points to give the Blue and Gold a 19-12 advantage just over six minutes into the game. The Eagles maintained the seven-point advantage until David Nesbitt's dunk sparked a 9-0 run that gave the Bobcats their first lead of the game, 24-22, midway through the half.

ERAU built the lead back up to six (32-26) with 5:04 remaining in the half, but the Bobcats battled back to tie the score and took a 40-39 lead on a pair of Chuck Sanders free throws with three seconds left on the clock. Taking the ball out under the Bobcat basket, the Eagles completed a pass to Jeremiah Applin on the left side and the junior's half-court heave sailed over the other players on the court and hit nothing but net to give the Eagles a 42-40 edge heading into halftime.

Applin's shot gave the Eagles something of a spark going into the second half and they used it to add to their lead. With 8:38 showing on the clock, Pastrana fed Graham for a layup to put match ERAU's biggest lead of the half of eight points (63-55).
The Eagles came up empty on their next four possessions and that allowed St. Thomas to cut the lead to three (63-60) with 6:15 left to play. The Eagles were able to go back up by four, but a pair of free throws and a jump shot by Davis tied the score a 68-68 at the 3:03 mark.

After each team connected on a field goal to preserve the tie, Davis knocked down his only trey of the night to make the score 73-70 in favor of St. Thomas. The Bobcats elected to foul on the Eagles' next trip down the floor and Graham knocked down both free throw attempts to pull the Blue and Gold within one with 45 seconds left.

ERAU returned the favor by fouling Hincapie, but the St. Thomas sophomore, who scored 15 points in the first half, made just one of two free throws, giving the ball back to the Eagles with 33 seconds to play. The Eagles' attempt to draw level with or take over the lead from the Bobcats went awry as a turnover gave the ball back to the home team with just 13 seconds left.

The Eagles' quick foul sent Robert Ford to the line, but he too was just 1-of-2, leaving ERAU with 12 seconds to make something happen. With two seconds left, Touchard released a shot from beyond the arc and thought he may have been fouled, but his shot missed the mark and the officials did not whistle for an infraction, allowing the Bobcats to escape with the win.

The Eagles complete the two-game road trip and close out the regular season against Florida Memorial at 7 p.m. on Saturday.