ST. DAVIDS (PA) – Delaware Valley University freshmen Lybrant Robinson and Damian Washington combined for 43 points, but it wasn't enough as the Aggies dropped an 86-79 decision at Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) foe Eastern University.
The win lifted the playoff-bound Eagles to 14-10 overall, 9-4 and tied with DeSales University and Misericordia University for second place in the league. DelVal, which will host DeSales in Saturday's season finale, fell to 5-19 and 3-10.
A wild first half saw both offenses shine as they each shot just under 50 percent from the field and combined for 12 treys. There were five ties and 11 lead changes, the last coming when DelVal was up three, 30-27. Eastern then went on a 12-4 spurt and eventually took a 48-39 lead into the halftime break. Robinson led the Aggies' showing by coming off the bench and scoring 11 points in 14 minutes of action.
The Eagles extended their advantage to 15, 68-53, seven minutes into the second stanza. DelVal then scored 14 of the game's next 19 points to cut its deficit to six with 8:04 remaining. Robinson and Washington had nine of the 14 points during that time.
Eastern bumped its lead back up to nine before a 5-0 Aggie run followed. DelVal was still down by just four, 80-76, after Washington sank a pair of free throws with 2:12 left on the clock. However, the Eagles' Darius Washington connected on a three-point play and Antonio Chapman followed with a trey to put the game away.
For the Aggies, Washington was 8-for-16 from the field, en route to 22 points, one shy of his career high. He also grabbed 11 rebounds, including six on the offensive end. Robinson netted a career-high 21 points in 25 minutes. Senior Ryan Naccarato hit a trio of 3-pointers and finished with a career-best 13 points. Alex Matsinye finished with 10 points, seven assists and five rebounds while Andre' Butler also dished out seven assists to go along with six points and five boards.
Eastern, which shot exactly 50 percent from the field for the game, was led by Chapman's 19 points. Washington had 17 points and Jordan Johnson came off the bench to net 12 points.