McLaurn's Late Jumper Seals Triton Victory

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Eckerd's leading scorer, Drushaun McLaurn, did not have one of his best shooting performances in Saturday night's game at Embry-Riddle.

But when the Tritons needed a basket the most, the senior came through in spades.

McLaurn canned a jumper off an inbounds pass with two seconds left, putting Eckerd ahead by one. Then, after Embry-Riddle's full-court pass sailed out of bounds, McLaurn was fouled on the next inbounds pass and made both ends of a one-and-one to seal a hard-fought 64-61 road victory for the Tritons. 

HOW IT ENDED
Final: Eckerd 64, Embry-Riddle 61
Records: Eckerd 13-4 (6-3 SSC); Embry-Riddle 9-12 (2-8 SSC)

KEY MOMENTS

• Both teams struggled a bit offensively in the early moments of the game before Eckerd got 3-pointers from Marquis Gilbert and Gianni Dailey to take a 15-14 lead at the 11:15 mark. 
• Dailey's basket would be the team's last, however, for the next six minutes. The Eagles weren't able to take full advantage thanks to EC's defense, but did score nine unanswered points before another Dailey 3-pointer finally snapped the Tritons' cold spell with 5:06 left in the half.
• The Eagles responded with three straight 3's, twice extending the lead to 11 points before Eckerd closed the half on a 7-0 run to cut the gap to four at the break.
• ERAU's lead fluctuated between three and seven points for the first eight minutes of the second half until Myron Hagins knotted the score at 42-42 with a 3-pointer from the top of the key.  It was part of a 10-2 run that put the Tritons ahead by three (47-44) with 10:14 to play.
• The Tritons didn't trail again until Nashad Mackey made a contested 3-pointer with 15 seconds left, putting the Eagles up by one give Eckerd the chance to play for the last shot. McLaurn missed short on his floater in the lane but Marco Behori sneaked in and tied up Mackey on the rebound to keep the ball on Eckerd's end.
• Behori again fed the ball to McLaurn on the inbounds pass, and this time McLaurn knocked down the shot while falling to his left with 1.9 seconds remaining. Embry-Riddle attempted a full-court baseball pass on the ensuing inbounds but it flew too far and gave Eckerd the ball back under its own basket. McLaurn was quickly fouled, and he calmly made both free throws to cap the win.

NOTES AND NUMBERS

• Eckerd was outrebounded for the second straight game, 39-37. Those games are the only times this season in which the Tritons had a negative rebounding margin.
• Behori again led EC in scoring with 15 points. He narrowly missed a double-double, grabbing nine rebounds and also added four steals.  McLaurn and Hagins each added 10 points and nine rebounds.
• Eckerd has won three straight games against Embry-Riddle.
• The Tritons held an opponent under 70 points for the ninth time this season.  EC is 9-0 in those games.

UP NEXT
The first half of the conference schedule wraps up on Wednesday when Eckerd hosts Tampa at 7:30 PM.