Season Photo Gallery
Archived Seasons Photo Gallery

St. David's, PA (February 22, 2014) – Eastern University used a 21-6 second-half run pushing a two-point lead into a 17-point advantage with four minutes left and the Eagles held on from there, defeating the Bulldogs 79-69, to finish up the Freedom Conference  regular season on Saturday afternoon.

The loss drops the Bulldogs (19-6, 9-5 Freedom) into a tie for second place with the Eagles (14-11, 9-5 Freedom).  Eastern earns the tiebreaker due to its season sweep of DeSales earning the #2 seed and will host the #3 seed Bulldogs right away in the opening round of the Freedom Conference Tournament on Wednesday at 7:00 pm.  FDU-Florham is the top seed and will host #4 Delaware Valley College in the other semifinal on Wednesday.

Senior Alexiah Grant led DeSales with a game-high 30 points, her second straight 30+ point game, and added five steals.  Senior Megan Gallagher added 17 points, seven rebounds, and four steals and senior Sondrine Glovas finished with 12 points, five assists, and six steals.

Eastern was led by junior Meghan Nowak with 26 points and nine rebounds, junior Kaitlyn Dougherty added 21 points, and sophomore Gina DiDomenico finished with 15 points and six assists.  Freshman Emily Lavin totaled nine points, nine rebounds, and seven blocks in the win.

A close game with 9:58 left to play after a lay-up from freshman Morgan McCollian was broken open over the next 5:50 as Eastern used a 21-6 run to take a 70-53 lead with 4:08 to play.  DSU committed five turnovers during the spurt.

Two three's from Grant and a lay-up inside from junior Alex Suk cut the margin down to nine points with 2:30 left to play, but a three-point play from Nowak ended the quick 9-0 run and the Eagles hit 6-of-6 from the charity stripe down the stretch to provide the final tally.

DSU started strong opening up a 10-1 lead over the first 3:07 before Eastern answered with 11 straight points to take a 12-10 lead and it was back-and-forth over the final 15 minutes of the half with EU clinging to a 33-31 lead.

Eastern torched the nets shooting 51.0 percent for the game and hit 25-of-27 from the free throw line (92.6 percent), while the Bulldogs hit just 32.1 percent from the field.  The Eagles out-rebounded DeSales, 44-35, while the Bulldogs forced 32 Eagle turnovers leading to 38 points.