ST. DAVIDS, Pa.- Eastern University Women's Basketball started slowly but used a series of spurts to pull away to an 85-67 home win over Delaware Valley College in Freedom Conference play. Freshman forward Meghan collected a career-best 32 points and added 10 rebounds to collect her third double-double of the season.

The Eagles (5-1, 2-0 Freedom ) struggled out of the gate against a hot-shooting Aggie side. Emily Soper scored eight early points and Brittany Battinieri added seven to push Del Val (5-2, 0-2 Freedom) to an 18-10 lead with 11 minutes to play in the contest. 

Eastern senior All-American Shante Jones sparked a 14-1 run with a three pointer from the wing. Nowak capped the run with her first of two three pointers. The 6-foot freshman is hitting three pointers at a 47% clip in the early part of her career. 

The Eagles briefly pushed their advantage to six at 28-22 before the visitors closed the gap to one on a quick-release three pointer from Battinieri and an inside hoop from Jackie Shunkwiler. Nowak then scored two straight buckets in the post to spark an 11-0 run to put the home side up 40-28. Kaleigh Boreman scored five straight points in the run on a three-pointer and a transition basket. 

Head Coach Nate Davis was pleased with the progress his young players showed in the contest. 

"Meghan [Nowak] continues to give us a good inside presence, and I thought Kaleigh knocked down some big shots," he said, "to get off to a 2-0 start against  a pair of good teams in the league is a great thing. We have to keep getting better, but it was nice to see our young players step up."

Nowak led all scorers with 16 at half. Jones had 11 points with 3 steals and three assists.

The Eastern lead hovered around 10 points for the first 12 minutes after the break.

Boreman then hit consecutive three-pointers to give the Eagles a 71-55 lead with seven minutes to play. The Aggies responded with seven straight points to close the gap to nine with four minutes to play.

Jones returned to the court from an extended break and immediately made a difference as the Eagles scored 14 straight to build their biggest lead of the game. Nowak and Jones each scored seven points in the run. Jones also had a pair of steals and an assist.

Jones finished the afternoon with 18 points, seven assists, five steals, and three rebounds on only seven shots. Nowak scored her 32 on 19 attempts from the floor. Bekah Roland added 12 points and 8 rebounds and Boreman finished with 13. Katie Lincoln registered a game-high eight assists and added five steals.

Soper had 18 and Battinieri 15 for the visitors. Delaware Valley had a 42-35 advantage on the glass.

The Eagles return to action for a non-league test at Rowan University on Wednesday evening.