WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle men's basketball team tipped off its season on Friday, opening up the SIAC/SSC Crossover Challenge with a statement win over Morehouse, 86-72. The Eagles (1-0) overpowered the Maroon Tigers (0-1) in the game's middle 20-minutes to secure the hard-fought win.
 
Dru Nickson led the way for the Eagles at the point, registering a career-high 29 points for ERAU on 10-of-17 shooting. Jared Berry and Milan Skoric also found offensive success, going for 17 and 15, respectively, each providing timely sparks. Berry's 17 were a career best as well. Yassin Hussein was a rebound shy of a double-double, opening his ERAU career with an 11 point, nine-rebound evening. 
 
The slow start was only part of the story – ending the first half shooting just 39.5-percent from the field – but a 24-5 run to close the first half and a remarkable 60-percent shooting effort, including 5-for-10 from behind the arc, in the second half sealed the deal. ERAU reeled of 15 second-chance points to Morehouse's seven, and even though the Eagles ceded the height advantage, ERAU outscored MC in the paint, 26-20.
 
Things started inauspiciously for ERAU in the early going. After Nickson laid in the season's first bucket a minute into the game, the Eagles went quiet for much of the first half, only able to muster 16 more points in the first 15 minutes. But the Blue & Gold settled in as a unit and out muscled the Tigers, turning a 25-15 deficit into a 39-30 halftime lead thanks to the incredible 24-5 run down the stretch.
 
Toward the middle of the first, Skoric nailed down consecutive threes over a span of two scoreless game minutes from both sides, making things 25-21 in favor of MC. From there, Nickson hammered home another Eagle three and then a nifty lay-in, helping to chip away at the deficit, while the electric spark from Berry really got the Blue & Gold cooking. The sophomore guard connected on back-to-back threes around the two-minute mark, putting the Eagles up 32-30, a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the way. Berry ended the half with eight points in the last two minutes, and along with a Jack Klinger bucket and a buzzer-beating trey from Nickson gave ERAU momentum into the break, up 39-30.
 
The Tigers opened up the second with an early jumper, but the Eagles turned on the defense immediately, preventing MC from finding any more rhythm for nearly five minutes of game time. In the meantime, senior forward Michael McCalister connected on a three, and Jerry Bracey II and newcomer big Yassin Hussein each knocked down a pair of freebies to vault ERAU to its largest lead of the night, up 10 at 48-38.
 
Nickson and Skoric combined to push the lead to 17 not long after, 59-42 by the 14-minute mark in the second frame. From there, it was just a game of waiting out the clock as the defense continued to suffocate the Tigers. 
 
When the dust settled, Embry-Riddle came away with the inaugural win of the 2024-25 season, defeating Morehouse for the second time in as many years. ERAU is back on the court on Saturday afternoon as they take on the Trevecca Nazarene Trojans at 2 p.m.