PRICE, Utah – After almost a month off of action, the Utah Stat Eastern men's basketball team almost pull off an upset of #12 Salt Lake Community College Thursday night.

The Eagles started the game fast and in control with a commanding 14 point lead in the first half. Three point shots made by freshman guards Milan Surlic and Quinn Peters propelled the Eagles to a big lead throughout most of the game.

At halftime the Eagles went into the locker room with a 36-28 lead thanks in part to a big first half by sophomore forward Cam Bailey who finished the first half with 11 points.

As the second half progressed the Eagles let their double digit slowly go away due to foul trouble with sophomore Roman Mcknight and Peters. Mcknight finished the night with seven points and a team-high 14 rebounds.

The Eagle lead went away when SLCC tied the game at 66 with 1:31 left in the game. In the last minute of the game the Eagles battled back and forth with the help of the free throw shooting of Bailey and Peters.

Peters hit two big free throws with 33 seconds left in the game to give the Eagles a three point lead. After the free throws Peters fouled SLCC and they went to the free throw line and made two shots to cut the Eagle lead to one.

A costly turnover by the Eagles off an inbound pass allowed SLCC's Keanu Peters to make a jump shot to put the Bruins ahead 71-70 with 20 seconds left. 

At the other end Cam Bailey went to the free throw line with eight seconds left and made two clutch free throws to give the Eagles a 72-71 lead. A breakdown on defense however allowed SLCC's Dalven Brushier to score the game winning layup with less than four seconds left to seal the victory for the Bruins.

Despite a tough loss Eagle Head Coach Vando Becheli feels like his team can take the next step this season and compete for a title.

"We played very well against SLCC, it means, we compete against the defending the National Championship title and I hope that we can maintain this level of the competition through the next two or three months and I think we will have a chance to compete for the Conference title," said Becheli.

In the loss, the leading scorer for the Eagles was Bailey who finished the night with 22 points and 4 rebounds. Bailey shot very well from the free throw line as well making 8 of 11 free throws.

Peters also had an impressive night in the backcourt scoring 13 points with 6 rebounds and dishing out 4 assists. Freshman Kristupus Totoris had a big night in a expanded role off the bench scoring 12 points and grabbing four rebounds.

The Eagles record now sits at 5-10 overall going into there next game which will take place this Saturday at home against Colorado Northwest at 5 p.m.

Fans can catch the game live on YouTube at youtube.com/usueastern. They can also get live updates from the Utah State Eastern Athletics Twitter page at twitter.com/usueathletics.