CENTER VALLEY, Pa.--Eastern Women's Basketball opened the 2013-14 season officially Friday night at a tournament hosted by DeSales University. The Eagles played Stevens Institute of Technology in the opener, but fell 71-67. The Stevens Ducks sunk two free throws with three seconds remaining to take the lead for good.

Eastern was led in scoring by junior forward Meghan Nowak. Nowak finished 23 points, going 6-for-11 from the floor and 11-for-13 from the line. Junior guard Kaitlyn Dougherty played scored 12 points and freshman Emily Carmel added nine points off the bench. Carmel provided a spark late in the first half, sinking three 3-pointers in a row.

Eastern head coach Nate Davis credited Stevens for out-working the Eagles. "Stevens played hard and were more agressive than us," he said. "And that's the difference in a lot of games. But we get to play tomorrow and we've got to move forward. This is game one of 26, and we can adjust."

Eastern trailed by single-digits for most of the second half. Junior Kaleigh Boreman sunk a 3-pointer with 15 seconds to go to bring Eastern within two points. The Eagles then got the ball back with 11 seconds to go when the Ducks fumbled a long inbounds pass. Eastern had to go the length of the court and Kaitlyn Dougherty was fouled going to the basket with eight seconds to go. She sank both free-throws to tie the game at 67-67.  The Ducks however had enough time to get the ball up the court and draw a blocking foul with three seconds remaining. The Ducks sank both free throws and then two more free throws with less than a second remaining.

Eastern plays Lycoming College at 2 p.m. Saturday.

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