BOX SCORE

Center Valley, PA (January 9, 2010) – Freshman Colleen Gavin (Quakertown, PA/Quakertown) recorded her second career double-double with 23 points and 12 rebounds leading the DeSales University women's basketball team past Eastern University, 71-54, in a Freedom Conference game on Saturday afternoon.

The Bulldogs snap a three-game losing skid with the win and improve to 5-7 overall and 1-2 in the Freedom Conference. Eastern drops to 4-5 overall and 0-3 in the Freedom with the loss. DeSales forced 30 Eagle turnovers and scored 25 points off those turnovers in the win.

DSU opened strong, rushing out to a 24-7 lead over the first 12 minutes with some shutdown defense. Gavin had 11 points to lead the strong start, while the Bulldog defense forced Eastern into 14 turnovers and just 18.8 percent (3-for-16) shooting.

After a free throw from Gavin at the 5:18 mark, EU began to chip away scoring the next six points to pull within eight before a three-pointer from junior Lori Lidlow (Toms River, NJ/Toms River North) at the halftime buzzer gave DSU a nine-point lead (35-26) at the break.

A three-pointer from Alysia Goodman of Eastern got the Eagles within three at the start of the second half but an 8-0 run midway thru the half keyed by four points from Gavin pushed a 10-point advantage up to 18 points with 12:34 left to play and the Bulldogs cruised the rest of the way.

Gavin shot 8-for-12 for the game and added four steals in the win. Lidlow added 12 points and four steals off the bench and sophomore Cherelle Simmons (Lancaster, PA/JP McCaskey) also reached double figures with 11 points and pulled down eight rebounds. Senior Kelly Magrann (Sinking Spring, PA/Holy Name) had nine points.

Goodman finished with 11 points, seven rebounds, three assists, and three steals for the Eagles in the loss.

DeSales now takes to the road, traveling to Misericordia University for another Freedom Conference game on Wednesday, January 13th beginning at 6:00 pm.