DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Embry-Riddle men's basketball bounced back into the win column on Wednesday night, closing on a 6-0 run from the foul line to defeat Rollins 71-66 inside the ICI Center.
Jared Berry scored 23 points on 8-for-18 shooting, scoring four of the final six points in the final 30 seconds of the game, as the Eagles returned to .500 on the season.
RECORDS
Embry-Riddle: 11-11 (8-7 SSC)
Rollins: 13-11 (7-9 SSC)
GAME NOTES
- The Eagles are 15-13 against the Tars and are 6-4 in the last 10 matchups.
KEY PERFORMERS
Embry-Riddle
Rollins
- Jah Nze – 21 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast
- Ricky Ghedini – 15 pts, 6 reb, 2 stl
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half
- Rollins jumped out to a 4-0 lead within the first two minutes of play before building to a 12-4 advantage with 14:05 left on the clock, edging out sloppy play that resulted in six combined turnovers.
- Three-pointers from Berry and Braeden Moore sparked a scoring stretch of 15 points for the Eagles, eventually leveling the game at 22-22 with a three from Evan Montanari at the 5:54 mark.
- Both teams battled down the stretch with back-and-forth play, trading leads and producing two tied scores in the process.
- ERAU closed out the half with a narrow 33-32 advantage at the break with 41.4% (12-of-29) shooting from the field.
- Berry and Montanari led the charge with seven points apiece.
Second Half
- Rollins struck early out of the break with a long ball from beyond the arc, briefly reclaiming the lead before ERAU answered with a Dawson Barr three followed by a jumper from Logan Lewis.
- The Tars managed to tie the score once again with a three-pointer at the 15:35 mark, drawing a 42-42 score.
- Embry-Riddle pulled away to a 50-42 advantage, scoring eight unanswered sparked by another Barr three-pointer.
- Rollins eventually erased the Embry-Riddle advantage with a 16-6 run to claim a 58-56 edge with 7:31 remaining.
- A jumper from Berry at the 6:57 mark tied the game once again, sparking life into the ERAU offense.
- A tip-in from Jack Klinger followed by a three-pointer from Berry advanced the ERAU edge to 63-60 with five minutes to go.
- The Tars would go on to eventually take a 66-65 edge at the 2:23 mark with a pair of free throws.
- Thankfully, the Eagles converted from the charity stripe, scoring the final six points with clutch free throws to secure the gritty 71-66 win.
- Berry went 5-of-7 from the field and 5-of-6 from the foul line to score 16 points in the half.
INSIDE THE STATS
- Embry-Riddle finished the game shooting 42.4% (25-of-59) from the field, 30.4% (7-of-23) from three, and 87.5% (14-of-16) from the charity stripe.
- The Eagles dominated the glass 43-36 in rebounding, led by Lewis with seven and Clarens Pierre with six.
- Lewis also led with four assists while Berry produced three.
- Berry has now gone back-to-back games with 23 points, producing 20-plus in nine of the last 10 contests to move closer toward 500 points this season.
- Klinger returned to shooting above 70% with 5-of-6 shooting (83.3%), scoring 12 points in the process.
- ERAU's bench outscored Rollins' 22-14 with the Eagles also outscoring the Tars 34-26 inside the paint.
- Wednesday's game featured 13 lead changes and 10 tied scorelines.
UP NEXT
The Eagles host Florida Southern on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. ET for Hoops and Hearts Night inside the ICI Center.
