MADISON, N.J. – Despite a late second half charge, the Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham men's basketball team was unable to overcome the deficit and ultimately fell to the Eastern University Eagles 81-73 on Saturday afternoon at the Ferguson Recreation Center.

The Devils were led by Anthony Mitchell and Donte Ali, who each notched 18 points in the contest. Ali was efficient and made over 50 percent of his shots to go along with eight boards, five assists and three steals.

Sophomore forward Veon Lassiter also reached double-digit scoring as he tallied 16 points. The Devils received some offense off of the bench from Steve Herdman and Alex Hanssen. Herdman went 3-of-4 from the field including a pair of long range makes to give him nine points, while Hanssen added seven.

It was a tightly contested game between the Eagles (10-11, 4-6 MAC Freedom) and Devils (4-17, 2-8 MAC Freedom) up until the midway mark of the first half, when Eastern went on a 12-2 run and grabbed a 24-17 lead.

FDU-Florham worked to cut into the deficit, but the Eagles had an answer for every score by the Devils. Mitchell was able to bury a mid-range jumper right before the halftime horn sounded though to make it an eight-point game, 41-33.

The second stanza featured a lot of offense from both teams as they combined to score 80 points.

A 9-2 run early in the second half swung the momentum in the direction of the Devils and the Eagles' lead was cut to two, 44-42.

However, the Eagles responded with a 13-5 run capped off by an Austin James three-point make. James led Eastern in scoring with 18 points, 10 boards and four assists off of the bench and was one of four players to surpass the double-digit scoring mark.

The Devils worked tirelessly to get back into the game late in the contest and the lead was cut to three following a Hanssen low post score off of an assist from Ali.

With under a minute left to play in the game, a pair of Mitchell made foul shots made it a two-point game, 75-73, but Eastern answered immediately with a Tarek Hamzeh three-pointer and the game was suddenly out of reach. Hamzeh had 15 points in the game, connected on all five of his shots from beyond the arc.

The Devils will be back in action on Wednesday, February 10 for a MAC Freedom road game against Manhattanville College slated for 8 p.m. in Purchase, N.Y.