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Shaquan Turk glides through the paint against Manhattanville. He scored 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting.

Five Eagles reached double-digits in points. Tarek Hamzeh led the way with 18 points. Hamzeh went 6-for-12 from the floor, 4-for-9 from behind the arc. Shaquan Turk shot 8-for-10 to finish with 17 points and collected a double-double with 10 rebounds. Those 10 boards were a game-high and the Eagles, for the third time this season, out-rebounded their opponent (32-30). 

Turk provided the highlight of the night on a posterizing fastbreak dunk with 2:08 in the game.

Austin James spotted 14 points, Austin Carroll added 12 points and four assists, and Anthony Concepcion contributed 10 points and five dimes. For Eagles' head coach Nate Stewart, one of the keys early on was keeping the ball moving and getting everyone involved. In the second half, it came down to the team redoubling their efforts on defense and on the glass. "Anytime you can get stops and rebounds--that's the key to having success," he said. "Austin Carroll was huge coming in and picking our energy level up. We started picking our pressure up full-court and he did a good job guarding the ball.

"The guys are playing with a lot of confidence right now. Defensively we've fixed a few things and we're doing a better job of protecting the rim. And we're rebounding the ball. We finally out-rebounded someone."

Juan Camacho, who entered the game as the Freedom Conference's leading scorer, recorded a game-high 19 points for the Valiants.

Both teams were heavy on the turnovers on Wednesday, with Manhattanville committing 20 and Eastern 19. Eastern however scored 29 points directly off turnovers while Manhattanville only recorded nine points off Eastern turnovers.

The Eagles led wire-to-wire save for a few seconds midway through the second half. After carrying an 11-point lead into halftime, the Eagles saw that lead fizzle over the first eight minutes of the second period. Manhattanville out-scored Eastern 23-11 in that span, taking the lead with 12:01 to go on a 3-pointer by Dom Arena. A free throw by Carroll knotted the game at 54-54, and Turk put Eastern back in the lead for good with a layup on the next possession. The Eagles eliminated any idea of a Manhattanville comeback with a 16-0 run that started with that Carroll free throw.

Turk emphatically slammed the proverbial nail in the coffin with 2:08 remaining. Austin James lobbed an inbounds pass over the top to Austin Carroll who was breaking free of Manhattanville's press near halfcourt. Carroll quickly caught the pass and released a pass across the court to a sprinting Turk. Turk elevated off two feet, and with his head nearing the rim, threw down a one-handed slam over top of Manhattanville's Camacho.

With the three-game winning streak, the Eagles are moving back towards .500 overall. Now 7-9 this season, the Eagles look to keep the streak alive at Misericordia University on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Box Score