The Battle of Eagle Road, a crosstown matchup that Cabrini has dominated over Eastern University for the better part of the last 50 years. Cabrini has won an impressive 37 out of 48 meetings against Eastern. However, it appears that the pendulum has swung in Eastern’s favor.
Eastern defeated the Cavaliers in dominating fashion by a score of 81-61 at Nerney Pavillion this past Wednesday.
The Cavaliers got off to a slow start, as Eastern jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the first ten minutes, carried by their hot three- point shooting.
Eastern was carried by guard Kaeshawn Ward, who had a career night scoring 18 points on 5 for 10 shooting.
Despite Ward’s efforts, Cabrini was able to cut it to a 17-20 lead, partially due to the efforts of Cabrini’s Bryce Parks, who made an impact coming off the bench.
However, a rowdy Eastern student section and the physicality of the Eagles continued to overwhelm the Cavaliers, as Eastern went on a 7-0 run, and eventually headed into the half with a 37-44.
The story of the first half for both teams was turnovers, as Eastern capitalized by scoring 10 points off of 20 Cabrini turnovers.
This continued well into the second half, as the turnovers continued for Cabrini, as Eastern expanded on their lead to make it 41-53.
To make matters worse for the Cavaliers, Brice Parks, who was the catalyst for the Cavaliers in the first half, got into foul trouble early in the second half.
With Parks on the bench and a handful of calls by the officials going against the Cavaliers, Eastern expanded on their lead well into the waning minutes of the matchup.
While at times it looked like Cabrini was cutting into the Eastern lead, with Donoven Mack making the Eagles lead only eight points, this feeling was short-lived.
Eastern’s Terron Bacon added to the big Eastern lead with a barrage of 3 pointers in the second half, shooting 3-6 behind the arc in the second half. It seemed like Eastern had an answer for the Cavaliers all night, and Bacon’s three-point shooting was a huge part of Eastern maintaining their advantage.
To make matters worse, the Cavaliers finished the game with a season-high 25 turnovers, resulting in 23 points for Eastern. Points were left on the court for the Cavs, and the Eagles capitalized on it.
When it was all said and done, the Eagles left Nerney Pavilion with a 20-point win over their bitter rival.
The Eastern student section made a point to let the leaving Cavalier faithful know about their triumph, as the Eagle Road trophy was raised high above the hands of the Eastern players on the way back to their campus.