DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle men's basketball team improved to 2-0 in Sunshine State Conference play on Saturday, downing Barry, 85-78. The Eagles (4-2, 2-0 SSC) used resilience in the paint all evening to overpower the Buccaneers (1-3, 0-2 SSC), collecting 20 offensive rebounds to go along with 36 second-chance points in the winning effort.
In fact, all 11 Eagles who recorded a rebound had at least one offensive board on the night.
Michael McCalister was not far off of a double-double, adding eight points to his team-best nine rebounds.
Yassin Hussein tallied 14 points to go along with five boards, while
Dru Nickson led all scorers on the night with 21 points, back to his 20-points-per game average, adding four rebounds and a game-high five assists. Also in on important plays on both sides in the court was
Jerry Bracey II, who went for 10 points and was two boards away from a double-double with eight rebounds, adding a trio of helpers as well.
Though Barry maintained an early thanks to a quick-style of play, the Eagles dug in to rally late in the first half. The Bucs held a lead as big as seven (21-14 at 13:11) but the one-two punch of
Jared Berry and
Jack Klinger got things back to even with about nine minutes remaining. Berry connected on a mid-range shot from Hussein and sandwiched a tough Klinger layup with a deep trey off a McCalister dish to pull ERAU within a score at 21-21. Berry finished the night with 10 points, 3 rebounds and an assist in another excellent showing off the bench.
McCalister grabbed a tough offensive board then quickly laid one in to tie it, then Berry showed off his athleticism with a nifty fastbreak off a missed BU jumper, giving the Eagles their first lead of the night at 9:24 left in the first. The game would see four more lead changes to wind down the first frame, but tough play from the bench, including Berry, Klinger,
Dawson Barr (5 points 1 rebound, 1 assist). The sequence of the evening came around the one-minute mark when ERAU nabbed four consecutive offensive boards, capped off by a tough finish from
Logan Lewis to give the Eagles the lead back. Though Barry got the last score of the first, two freebies from Nickson gave the Blue & Gold a slim 42-41 lead into the break.
But ERAU clamped down in the second half, allowing just 37 BU points. Bracey II registered all 10 of his points and six of his boards in the second frame, while Nickson paced all players with 12 in the half. Though the Eagles shot just 37-percent in the frame, their defense and timely shots that did go in made the difference.
McCalister and Bracey II got the Eagles ahead by six early in the second, then
Milan Skoric (9 points, 2 rebounds) nailed home his second of three threes on the night to extend the lead to seven. Later at the 12:41 mark, Skoric again added a deep shot to push the lead to its largest on either side of the night, 64-56 ERAU.
Clarens Pierre had a great run of play off the bench, scoring all four of his points and collecting a big-time block to keep the Eagle up six, 66-60 with 9:40 to play.
BU clawed back to tie things up not long after, however, at 69-69, but Nickson took it personally, dishing out the game's next eight points on his own. Hussein and McCalister combo'd scores down the stretch, then four Nickson three throws at the end of the scrappy contest sealed the deal for the Eagles, who ran away with the 85-78 victory.
Next up, ERAU heads into the Thanksgiving break with a visit from Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, before hosting Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (Nov. 30) to round out the month of November.
The 2024-25 Embry-Riddle men's basketball season is presented by Daytona Kia.
