Tanisha Starkes hit a three pointer to break a 53-53 tie with just 49 seconds to play to propel the Eastern University women's basketball team to a 58-55 home win over Misericordia University on Monday night. Starkes finished with a team-high 14 points as the Eagles earned their second straight Monday night win.

With leading scorer Bekah Roland saddled with foul trouble early, the Eagles needed to look to elsewhere for points. Starkes and Joelle DeCarlo combined for 15 points as the Eagles took a 31-22 lead into the half. The Eastern defense held the Misericordia offense to 32% shooting and forced 15 turnovers before the break.

The Eagles led by as much as 12 points in the first half as they connected on 14-30 field goal attempts. Starkes hit both her three point attempts and DeCarlo hit her only three pointer. The Cougars had their chances at the foul line, but hit just 10-18 foul shots in the first half.

Key to the Eagles first half success was the defensive effort of Shaneen Brown. The sophomore center came into the game to slow down Misericodia's Lacey DeGraw. She grabbed five rebounds, blocked a shot and corralled a steal in eleven minutes. More importantly, DeGraw did not score a basket in the last ten minutes of the opening frame. 

The Eagles led 38-27 after five minutes elapsed in the second half, but the Cougars responded with a 17-5 run over the next nine minutes. Down 44-43, the Eagles looked to senior guard Lizzie Wilson. Wilson hit just one field goal on the evening, but it was a big one as she drained an open three from the right wing to put the Eagles up by a pair with 6:30 to play.

Starkes, who put together a very solid overall floor game to go with her scoring, scored the next three points and the Eagles held a five point lead with four and a half minutes left. After the teams traded scores, the Cougars got a three pointer from Courtney Sykes and a pair of free throws to tie the game at 53 with just over a minute to play. Wilson set up Starkes' heroic jumper from distance with a nice drive and dish to the perimeter. Wilson finished the day with seven points and a game-high 10 assists.

DeGraw finished the day with a game-high 21 points. Head Coach Katie Levis was very pleased with the effort put forth by her reserves in all facets of the game. "We had some players really step up this evening. We made some big plays in some big moments. This was  a great team win."

The Eagles will play again at 6:00 pm Wednesday evening at FDU-Florham.