Eagle Basketball Ends Season in National Quarterfinal
POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. - Top-seeded Walsh (Ohio) dashed eighth-seeded Embry-Riddle's hopes of a trip to the national semifinals as they held off the Eagles 74-67, Saturday in the quarterfinal round of the NAIA National Championship.
The Cavaliers, who have not trailed in three games at the national tournament, opened up a quick 14-6 lead over the Eagles. A three-pointer by Eagle forward Eric Lorenzi cut the lead to one (14-13) at the midpoint of the first half but Ricky Jackson scored five straight Walsh points to give his team a 23-15 lead and that advantage grew to 34-26 at the half.
Coming out of the break, a three-pointer by Danny Krazit and a lay-up by Lorenzi made it a five-point game (36-31) and both teams traded baskets over the next two minutes to help Walsh maintain the five-point cushion.
A basket by Jackson followed by a jumper by Kenny Kornowski gave Walsh its largest lead of the game, 45-35 with 13:59 left to play, prompting ERAU head coach Steve Ridder to call a timeout. The timeout served its purpose as a Ray Graham three-pointer from the corner and triggered an 8-2 Eagle run that made the score 47-43.
The next four minutes saw the Cavalier steadily creep to seven points, but another Eagle run pulled the Eagles' back in the game and after Graham's second three of the afternoon, the Eagles were within three, 57-54.
With 3:51 remaining and the Cavaliers still clinging to a three-point advantage, Brandon Speck and Jeremy Shardo hit threes on back-to-back possessions to put Walsh back up by seven. Shardo's three with the shot clock winding down, appeared to take the wind out of the Eagles' sails, but that proved to be temporary, as ERAU made another surge and cut the lead to four with 32 seconds left.
With the score at 70-65 in favor of Walsh, Lorenzi took the ball down floor and was fouled in the act of shooting a three-pointer. Lorenzi cut the lead to three after making two of three free throws and with 11 seconds left the Eagles opted to foul Jackson and the Cavaliers' leading scorer made good on all four his free throw attempts in the closing seconds of the game to seal the Walsh win.
The Eagles were led by 27 points from Lorenzi who was 10-for-21 from the field. David Butler added 14 and Graham scored 10. Embry-Riddle shot just under 40% for the game but struggled from the perimeter against the Cavs' defense, shooting 28% (5-of-18).
With the loss, the Eagles' 2009-10 campaign came to an end with an impressive 30-6 record.