by DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The 13th-ranked Embry-Riddle men’s basketball team captured its eighth Daytona Mitsubishi/Kia Shootout title on Saturday night, holding off upset-minded Briar Cliff, 60-57 in the 2014 tournament’s finale. The Eagles overcame a one-point deficit with 90 seconds left to preserve their unblemished record, moving to 6-0 on the year, while the Chargers dropped to 6-2. Cesar Pastrana, the tournament’s MVP, scored 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Blue and Gold who will head to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on Tuesday, Nov. 25 for a 7:30 p.m. game agaisnt NCAA II Nova Southeastern.
After a slow first half, the Eagles and Chargers were locked in a defensive battle with neither team leading by more than eight during the contest. The hosts saw their 46-38 cushion at the 10:45 mark dissapear when Bryan Forbes made good on two free throws with 4:35 left, tying the game at 48-48
The Eagles countered with a pair of freebies from DeForest Carter (Seminole Tribe of Florida) to retake a two-point lead, but a triple from Clay Harreld ignited the BCU bench and gave the Chargers their first lead since late in the opening period.
Trailing 51-50 with less than four minutes, the Eagles pounded the ball inside to Pastrana who traded layups with BCU’s Matt Berg before Carter threaded a pass on the baseline to the Cartagena, Colombia native who stuck it in for a 54-53 ERAU lead.
Forbes connected on two more free throws with 1:30 left after Carter committed a foul, and the pair from the charity stripe again gave Briar Cliff a lead, prompting a timeout from BCU’s bench.
Dalton Barnes drove to the hoop on the ensuing ERAU possession, making the layup before Carter came up with one of the biggest plays of the night, blocking Harreld’s trey with 48 seconds left and sprinting behind the Chargers’ defense as Barnes fed him the ball for a one-handed dunk and a three-point lead at 58-55.
Forbes was given another trip to the free throw line when Daniel Kiesling was whistled for a blocking foul in the lane and after the Charger made both the visitors forced a turnover out of the inbounds play. However, both Harreld and Forbes missed layups that would have given the Chargers a lead and Kiesling grabbed a defensive rebound before being fouled with 16 seconds left.
Kiesling connected on both free throws and Forbes forced an off-balance three-pointer with seven seconds left that Pastrana corralled for his seventh reboun of the night, sealing the game for the Eagles.
Both offenses struggled in the early going with the Eagles held scoreless for the first four minutes of the game until Reed Ridder hit a three to cut the BCU lead to 5-3. A couple of back-and-forth minutes led to a 9-8 ERAU lead with 11:24 left before Joseph Gonzalez buried a long ball to move the ERAU cushion to four points.
The Chargers answered quickly with six straight to take a 14-12 lead, and led until Pastrana’s layup with just over four minutes left in the half, which gave the Blue and Gold a 22-19 lead. A strip and steal by Carter ended in a dunk for the senior from Big Cypress, Fla. on the next BCU possession and the Eagles ended the half on a 6-0 run to take a 31-27 lead into the break.
Embry-Riddle maintained a two possession lead for most of the second period until Forbes’ free throws with under five minutes left knotted the game at 48-48.
Embry-Riddle held BCU to 33 percent from the floor and 26 percent from three-point range, but the Chargers made 17-of-23 at the line to stay in the contest. ERAU shot 44 percent and just 18 percent from deep, managing 13 assists and seven blocks with six steals.
Joining Pastrana on the All-Tournament team were Carter (16 points, 8 assists) and Barnes (10 points, 8 rebounds) for the Eagles and Forbes (8 points, 7 rebounds) and Berg (11 points, 4 rebounds) for the Chargers. Talladega’s Brandon Peters was also named to the All-Tournament squad.
