Center Valley, PA (January 17, 2015) – The DeSales University women's basketball team gave #1 FDU-Florham a little bit of a scare Saturday afternoon erasing a 19-point deficit to pull within six points late before ultimately falling, 69-59, in Freedom Conference action on Saturday afternoon in Billera Hall.
 
Sophomore Morgan McCollian led the Bulldogs (9-6, 3-1 Freedom) with 20 points and eight boards and freshman Angelica Bertola scored a season-high 15 points off the bench in the loss.  Freshman Kaitlin Kelly also played well tossing in eight points and adding five assists to no turnovers off the pine.
 
Junior Shalette Brown was the difference for the Devils pouring in 21 points and grabbing nine rebounds.  Senior Kara Dayon added 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting to round out the double digit scorers for Florham (15-0, 4-0 Freedom).
 
DSU opened the game in a zone and FDU took full advantage connecting on six of its first seven three's taking a 28-8 lead forcing the Bulldogs out of the zone.
 
DeSales responded slowly chipping away at the deficit using an 11-1 run near the end of the first-half to pull within nine points (33-24) on a three from Kelly before the Devils scored the final four points of the half to take a 37-24 advantage into the break.
 
The Bulldogs stayed with the man-to-man in the second-half and again got within nine points three different times early in the half before FDU used a 12-2 run to go up 53-34 at the 13:11 mark.  DSU refused to quit though as a Kelly three started a 9-0 run that made it 53-43 with 10:29 left to play.
 
The two teams traded baskets over the next few minutes as DeSales continued to trail by 10 with 6:04 remaining before a lay-up from McCollian and a fast break bucket from Bertola cut it down to six (61-55) with 4:05 to go.
 
Baskets by both teams kept it a six-point game with 2:59 left when DSU forced a shot clock violation.  Kelly had a good look at a three on the next possession that was just offline and Brown grabbed the board.  A foul on the other end saw FDU convert 1-of-2 with sophomore Megan Baird cutting the deficit down to five points (64-59) on a runner with 1:01 to go.
 
DSU looked to trap in the backcourt but was forced to foul once FDU crossed half-court and the Devil's iced the win from the charity stripe hitting 5-of-6 over the final 48 seconds to escape with the win.
 
FDU shot 46.4 percent from the field and hit 8-of-17 (47.1 percent) from outside the arc.  DSU hit 45.8 percent from the field, 52.0 percent in the second-half and was 11-of-12 from the free throw line.
 
The Bulldogs return to action on Wednesday, January 21^st when they travel to Wilkes University for another important Freedom Conference road game beginning at 6:00 pm.