DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The Embry-Riddle men's basketball team bounced back from their first loss and their longest layoff to-date with a 101-83 win over NAIA II No. 13 Ave Maria on Saturday night in the ICI Center. The Eagles (7-1) got a big game offensively from Romeo Crouch while dominating the paint against a Gyrene (8-1) team that was held to 16 points below their season average.

Crouch, coming off a career-high 25 points against Lynn last week, was perfect through his first seven shots of the night, ending the game with 29 points on 9-for-14 shooting, including a career-best seven triples. Crouch also dished out six assists and managed four steals.

Chris Murray and Nick Heard both finished with double-doubles of 10 points and 10 rebounds, while Dru Nickson scored a career-high 13 points. Luka Majstorovic (12 points) and Cj Henagan (10 points) also reached double-figures offensively.

Both teams had a hard time shrugging off the turkey and mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving as neither team was able to score until a three-pointer from AMU's Leo Behrend more than 90 seconds into the contest.

The Gyrenes went out to an 11-4 lead before a Henagan three stopped the run, and a Nickson free throw followed by a Crouch trey a few minutes later, tied the game at 11-11.

Crouch's second triple of the night gave the Eagles a 14-11 lead and the host team never trailed after that, going up 10 on a Crouch jumper with 11:22 left (23-13).

Crouch scored 18 of his 29 points in the first half and the Eagles took a 48-37 lead into the break.

The two sides played fairly evenly in the second half with ERAU leading 54-46 at the 16:39 mark. Crouch hit a three and then got a great pass from Murray on the next possession, converting a layup to push the lead to 13. Henagan followed with an and-one and the Eagles coasted the rest of the way.

Embry-Riddle shot 46 percent from the floor and finished the game 11-for-29 from deep, while going 18-for-22 at the free throw line and owning the glass, 53-30. The Eagles had a huge advantage in the paint at 50-24 and second-chance points 22-3.

For the Eagles, it was the fifth time they have scored 100 points in their last six games and they improved to 16-1 all-time against Ave Maria.

ERAU jumps back into Sunshine State Conference play on Wednesday when they travel to Winter Park to take on Rollins at 7:30 p.m.