Having to wait 11 days to play after its first-ever victory over Elizabethtown on Tuesday, November 18, the Lancaster Bible men's basketball team returned to action on Saturday against Eastern in St. Davids, Pa. and showed that the break had no effect as the Chargers defeated the Eagles, 69-64. The victory over Eastern is just the second in program history and the first since the 1990-91 season as the Chargers improved to 2-9 all-time against the Eagles. 

On Saturday, the Chargers trailed just once the entire game as Tarek Hamzeh hit a 3-pointer to make it 6-5 Eastern with 16:34 to play in the first. Lancaster Bible junior CJ Dunston converted a layup in the paint 32 seconds later to give the Chargers a 7-6 lead and Eastern would never lead again. After Dunston's layup, the teams traded buckets as the score was 12-12 with 13:27 to play in the first, but from there, the Chargers went on a 10-0 over the next four minutes that was capped off by a layup from junior Luke Roundy.

The lead would grow to 13 points two times later in the first half as both teams struggled to score at various times. Eastern eventually chipped away at Lancaster Bible's lead and trailed just 32-24 at the break. The Eagles were just 8-of-30 (27 percent) from the floor in the first half, while the Chargers were 13-of-28 (46 percent).

A 7-2 run over the first 1:03 of the second half restored Lancaster Bible's 13-point lead at 39-26 as Dunston threw down a thunderous alley-oop from Albert Suniga to cap the scoring run. Eastern quickly countered with an 8-0 run of its own and trimmed the deficit to five at 39-34 with 17:43 to go.

Lancaster Bible's lead remained at five, six, seven or eight points for the next eight minutes, but a layup by senior Corey Leonard gave Lancaster Bible a 55-46 advantage with 9:38 to play. The Eagles once again chipped away and finally cut the deficit to one at 63-62 with 2:07 remaining thanks to a layup from Anthony Concepcion. A jumper by Dunston with 1:06 to play gave Lancaster Bible a 65-62 lead, but Concepcion again trimmed the deficit to one with two converted free throws with 23 seconds remaining.

After Leonard was fouled with 15 seconds to play, he converted both of his free throws to give the Chargers 67-64 lead. The Eagles had two attempts to tie the game, but missed both shots in the final 10 seconds. Dondre Perry sunk both free throws with a second to play to produce the final score and improve the Chargers to 2-1 this season.

Dunston was a force as he finished with 18 points, nine rebounds, four steals, three assists and three blocks. 

"He's a handful," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Marshall Tague said. "He's a big time force and he played well today."

The Chargers finished the game 28-of-57 (49 percent) from the floor, while Eastern was 21-of-58 (36 percent) from the floor. Tague said he thought the matchups Eastern presented the Chargers were a bit of a challenge, but that Lancaster Bible handled them well.

"It was a different matchup for our bigs because Eastern basically plays four or five guards at times, but we worked on it in practice and I thought the guys handled it well," Tague said. "It was a good challenge for us."

In addition to Dunston, Tague thought Corey Leonard played well as he finished with 11 points and seven rebounds. 

"He was big defensively for us and created on the offensive end of the floor as well," Tague said. 

After getting crushed in its season opener at Messiah, Tague was pleased with the way Lancaster Bible played away from home on Saturday. 

"Winning on the road is a big deal and winning a game against a team we don't usually beat is a big deal as well," Tague said. 

Tague said the Chargers are still jelling and the team is looking forward to playing three games next week after playing just three times over the past two weeks. 

"I think some of the struggles we are having will correct themselves as we simply play more games," Tague said. "Everyone may not play to their potential every game, but we have some guys who will start playing better simply because we are playing games. I think in a week or 10 days' time we will be a different team than we are today simply because we will have played three more games."

On Saturday, freshman Herbie Brown finished with nine points and four rebounds, while Suniga had six points, seven rebounds and five assists.

Two of Lancaster Bible's three games next week are North Eastern Athletic Conference contests as the Chargers will open NEAC play after three non-conference games to begin the season.

"We know we are going to get everyone's best shot during conference play after playing so well last season," Tague said. "We have been working the whole offseason and in the early going to defend our regular season NEAC title and we are glad the conference part of our schedule has arrived."

The Chargers will open NEAC play against Penn St. Berks on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and then travel to Bryn Athyn on Saturday to take on the Lions at 3 p.m. Next Sunday, December 7, the Chargers will host Cincinnati Christian at 1 p.m. for a rare Sunday home game.

Notes:
-Dunston is now averaging 13.7 points and 8 rebounds per game this season.

-Lancaster Bible's first three opponents have all had bird nicknames as they have faced the Falcons (Messiah), Blue Jays (Elizabethtown) and Eagles (Eastern). The streak will end on Wednesday when the Chargers face the Nittany Lions. 

-The game was the 60th of Tague's head coaching career at Lancaster Bible (29-31).