The men’s basketball team fought hard against the Missouri – St. Louis, narrowly edging out the Tritons on their way to a 67-66 victory.

The Eagles struggled to keep up the Tritons for much of the game, falling behind to open the third quarter.

“This is the best team we’ve beaten so far and we haven’t won a one possession game in this fashion,” siad Rodney Watson, the head coach of the men’s basketball team. “So it’s really important from a confidence standpoint that we could make a play like that. But when you’re down 10 with point to go we had to maintain our boys. We had to believe there’s enough time to get enough baskets.”

Emmanuel Little, Kobe Caldwell and Mateo Rivera kept the Eagles in the game, eventually relying on Rivera to seal the victory.

“I was thinking about just keeping our poise and making sure when you get a stop on defense.” said Josh Price, a junior forward. “When we get a stop on defense, that’ll change the momentum.”

Rivera missed the first free throw and left the entire crowd on the edge of their seat before nailing the second free throw and putting his team up by one point.

“There wasn’t much going through my mind.” said Rivera. “I was just clearing my head, knowing that I worked on my shots every day. So I mean, even though I missed that first one, it went in and out, I just knew that the second one was good I’m not working on it so often for it not to go in.”

Yaakema Rose Jr., No. 4 for the Tritons, fell just short of the basket as the clock ran out, securing the Eagles 19th victory.