THE LEAD
A late rally over the final four minutes was not enough to overcome an 11-point deficit, as the DBU Men's Basketball Team fell 98-94 to East Central University on Tuesday night at the Burg Center.  In the loss, Patrick Burke poured in a valiant effort as he registered his first career double-double, scoring 24 points and adding 10 rebounds. 

In a back-and-forth affair for most of the night, the Patriots went on an 8-4 run to take a 46-42 advantage at the half.  The lead would be short-lived though, as ECU's Stirling Taylor scored the first five points of the second half to give the Tigers back the lead.  Taylor would finish the night with a season-high 36 points and would spark ECU's second half run that saw them outscore the Patriots 56-48 over the final 20 minutes.

Down 85-74 with 3:49 left to play, DBU went on a 19-10 run to narrow the gap to two points.  A steal by Shannon Lilly on the full court press with 18 seconds remaining and a three-point shot from the senior guard narrowed the deficit to 95-93.  A pair of free throws though with five seconds left on the clock from ECU's Braxton Brown would end up icing the game for the Tigers down the stretch.

DBU HEAD COACH BLAKE FLICKNER ON
"I'm proud that we didn't give up.  We kept battling to the end.  We just needed to make one more play.  We had a stretch run there in the second half where we weren't getting stops and they were scoring too easily in the paint and that ended up being costly."

THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- DBU and East Central were tied eight times and had seven lead changes.
- The two teams combined for 97 free-throws.
- ECU outrebounded the Patriots by the slim margin of 37-36. 

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
15 – Stirling Thomas scored 15 of his 36 points from the free-throw line.
14 – Patrick Burke went 14-for-15 from the free-throw line.
18 – DBU shot just 18 percent from three-point range (4-of-22).

UP NEXT FOR THE PATRIOTS
DBU hosts the University of Science & Arts at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 28.