MIAMI SHORES, Florida - The Embry-Riddle men's basketball team went down to Miami Shores on Saturday and got a massive 82-72 road victory over No. 25 Barry. The Eagles (21-6, 14-4 SSC) got revenge on the Bucs (16-7, 11-7 SSC) for a loss earlier in the season, and in so doing, wrapped up the No. 2 seed for the upcoming Sunshine State Conference tournament. Embry-Riddle's win over the NCAA South Region second-ranked Bucs was the Eagles' 12th away from the ICI Center, by far the program's most since the 2014-15 NAIA II national semifinal team.

The Eagles dominated from the tip, never trailing, and leading by as many as 16 in the second half. Elijah Jenkins' 22 points led all scorers, while Romeo Crouch again flirted with a triple-double, going for 19 points, nine boards, and six assists. 

ERAU had an 11-rebound advantage for the game (45-34), and held the Bucs, the best three-point shooting team in the league, to just 23% from beyond the arc (8-for-35).

Embry-Riddle sprinted out to a 13-3 lead five minutes into the contest before the Bucs got their second field goal of the game. Cj Henagan's triple at the 11:16 mark made it 23-10, and the Eagles held a comfortable lead at 32-20 with just over seven minutes to go in the first. However, the home team went on a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to five before Michael McCalister came through with a massive three, stopping the run.

Barry scored six of the final eight points of the period to cut the Eagle lead down to four, 37-33, at the break.

The second half opened with an unusually long run of play as no dead ball occurred until nearly seven minutes into the period, and the Eagles had taken their four point lead out to a dozen at 53-41 when Jenkins made a trey with 13:51 on the clock.

After the first media timeout of the second, ERAU scored the next four points to take its biggest lead of the day at 57-41 on a Chris Murray layup.

The Blue and Gold led by double-digits until an 8-0 Barry run midway through the half took the Eagle lead down to just four at 62-58.

The Eagle defense forced a turnover and Jenkins made a huge shot to push ERAU's cushion to six. The next four shots were all made three-pointers, two by each squad, the final, from Jenkins, had Embry-Riddle up 70-64 at the 4:45 mark.

The biggest stretch of the contest came with a little over three to play, and ERAU up 72-68. Crouch was fouled and made two free throws to grow the lead to six, and then on the ensuing BU possession, Jenkins stole the ball, and Crouch converted a layup as the Eagles scored four points in the span of 18 seconds.

A defensive stop for ERAU led to another jumper from Jenkins and suddenly the visitors enjoyed a 78-68 lead with 2:33 left on the clock.

Barry's late push was too little, too late and Jon Alessandro made four straight free throws over the final 20 seconds to seal the 82-72 win.

Embry-Riddle shot 45% for the game, 57% in the second half, making 12 three-pointers on the day. Alessandro joined Jenkins and Crouch in double-figures with 14 points, while Michael McCalister grabbed nine huge rebounds, and scored five points. Whitlow went for seven points, five boards, and four assists, reaching the 1,000 point plateau for his career early the game.

The Eagles play their final regular season road game of the year on Wednesday, Feb. 23 when they travel to Lakeland to take on Florida Southern at 7:30 p.m.

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The 2021-22 Embry-Riddle Men's Basketball season is presented by Daytona Kia.