DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The second-ranked Embry-Riddle men's basketball team earned at least a share of the program's ninth regular season Sun Conference title on Thursday night with a 66-61 victory over the visiting Southeastern Fire. The win moves ERAU's season mark to 25-1, 13-1 in league play, while the Fire fall to 13-11, 7-8 in conference.
Embry-Riddle remains four games ahead of St. Thomas (15-9, 10-5) in the loss column atop the league table. The Blue and Gold will have an opportunity to clinch the regular season conference championship outright when they host St. Thomas on Saturday evening at 7 p.m. inside the ICI Center.
Cesar Pastrana led the Eagles in scoring (21) and rebounding (8) while DeForest Carter (12 points), Dalton Barnes (10) and Daniel Kiesling (10) all scored in double-figures. Carter chipped in a game-high seven assists and Kiesling pulled down seven boards as well.
Andre' Winston led the Fire with a game-high 23 points to go along with eight boards and four assists while Timothy Mitchell scored 12 points and pulled down a game-high 16 rebounds.
It didn't take long for Embry-Riddle to open up a lead on the Fire as the home team ran out to a 7-0 advantage in the first two minutes of play. A Kiesling three at the 12:33 mark pushed it to an 11-point lead (18-7) and it looked as though ERAU was in full control.
The Fire rallied back with a 9-0 spurt that closed the gap to just one point (25-24) with 6:35 on the clock, and just over four minutes later a Winston jumper gave Southeastern its first lead of the day (33-31). The lead volleyed back and forth four times in the final minutes of the half, but it was a Winston three with 49 ticks left that gave SEU a 38-36 lead at the break.
The Blue and Gold wasted no time after coming out of the locker room, storming back to take a 46-39 led just over three minutes into the second period. The Eagles never trailed from that point on, though the Fire were able to dwindle the lead down to one (57-56) with just over four minutes remaining. A Carter three with 2:11 left pushed it back to four (62-58) and a Pastrana layup with 1:05 remaining made it 64-59. Mitchell scored on a tip-in with 46 seconds on the clock, but Reed Ridder calmly knocked down a pair of free throws with 32 seconds left to seal the 66-61 victory for the Eagles.
