Center Valley, PA (November 15, 2017) - The DeSales University women's basketball team saw four players reach double figures and the Bulldogs force 44 Penn State Lehigh Valley turnovers in an 86-49 win in the season opener for both teams on Wednesday evening in Billera Hall.

Junior Leandra Sterner (Northampton, PA) led the way for DeSales (1-0) with a game-high 21 points and added four assists and four steals.  Junior Morgan Birmelin (Honesdale, PA) just missed recording the school's first-ever triple-double with 13 points, nine assists, and nine steals.  Seniors Emily Kiersnowski (Doylestown, PA) and Angelica Bertola (East Stroudsburg, PA) each recorded career-highs in the win with Bertola pouring in 16 points and Kiersnowski netting 15.

PSU-Lehigh Valley was led by Andrea Watkins with a team-high 10 points.

After DSU scored the first eight points of the game and held a 19-10 lead near the end of the first quarter, the Nittany Lions made a run to get within 23-22 with 5:23 to go in the second quarter.

The Bulldogs then took the game over finishing the first-half on a 22-2 run to take a 45-24 lead into the locker room.  DSU forced 11 turnovers and scored 13 fast break points during the game clinching spurt.

DeSales put the game out of reach to start the third quarter using an 18-0 run to push a 19-point lead into a 65-28 advantage with 3:17 left in the third quarter.

The Bulldogs scored 50 points off the 44 Nittany Lion turnovers and had a 38-6 advantage in fast break points.  The 28 steals were the third most in a game in team history.  DeSales shot 46.2 percent from the floor for the game and held PSU-LV to just 34.6 percent shooting.

DeSales returns to action on Saturday when they take on Alvernia University in the opening game of the Morgan Stanley Tip-off Tournament set to begin at 2:00 pm.