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St. David's, PA (February 26, 2014) – Freshman Morgan McCollian recorded her first career double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds leading the DeSales University women's basketball team past Eastern University, 73-54, in the semifinals of the Freedom Conference Tournament on Wednesday evening.

The Bulldogs (20-6 overall) advance to the Freedom Conference championship game for the 11th time in 17 appearances in the Freedom post-season and for the first time since the 2011 season.  DSU will travel on the road once again, taking on top seed FDU-Florham, a 56-49 winner over Delaware Valley College also on Wednesday night.  Game time for Saturday's championship game is set for 1:00 pm.

McCollian was outstanding in her career collegiate post-season game shooting 8-for-11 from the field and scoring 15 of her 19 points in the decisive second-half.  Seniors Alexiah Grant and Sondrine Glovas each had 21 points with Grant adding five assists and Glovas totaling seven steals.  Senior Megan Gallagher finished with a team-high 12 rebounds and had four steals, while sophomore Gabby Scott had a game-high six assists in the win.

Meghan Nowak led the Eagles with 14 points, while Kaitlyn Dougherty finished with 12 points and Gina DiDomenico added 11 points.  Freshman Emily Lavin had 10 rebounds and blocked six shots.

Eastern (14-12 overall) was the hot team at the start scoring 12 straight points after DSU led 2-0 to take a 12-2 lead 4:30 into the game.  Grant ended the drought with a three that sparked a 7-0 stretch to pull the Bulldogs within 12-9 seven minutes into the game.

DSU came all the way back at the 8:47 mark when a three from junior Mikelyn Mackavage ignited a 10-0 run that put the Bulldogs up one (19-18).  From there both teams struggled to score as eight total points were scored over the final 8:47 with Eastern taking a one-point lead (23-22) at the break on a lay-up from Yazlane Villegas at the first-half buzzer.

The Eagles still led by one (35-34) with 14:04 left to play when the Bulldogs took control.  Glovas and Grant combined for 11 straight points to give DSU a 45-35 lead at the 10:36 mark.

Eastern cut the lead down to five points (46-41) with 8:50 remaining but that was as close as the hosts could get as five straight points from McCollian pushed the lead back to 10 points and started a 9-0 run that gave the Bulldogs a 55-41 lead with 5:33 left to play and they cruised from there.

DeSales forced 30 Eagle turnovers and scored 27 points off those turnovers, while committing just 14 of its own and handing 18 assists in the win.  DSU also won the battle of the boards, 44-41, and hit 70.0 percent from the free throw line as compared to just 55.6 percent for Eastern.

DSU has now won 20+ games for the 19th time in program history and for the 12th time under head coach Fred Richter.