ST. DAVIDS, Pa.—Eastern University Women's Basketball upset the No. 1 FDU-Florham Devils 88-87 in overtime on Saturday afternoon, snapping the Devils' 53-game winning streak.
No team at Eastern University in any sport had ever knocked off a No. 1 team in NCAA play.
The Eastern University Eagles (17-4, 9-1 Freedom) handed the reigning national champs their first loss since March 2013. The Eagles frontcourt of Meghan Nowak and Emily Lavin were dominant in the paint. Nowak, a senior forward scored a game-high 24 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, blocked five shots and had five steals. Lavin, a sophomore, contributing 15 points, 15 rebounds and eight blocks.
Two seniors, Gina DiDomenico and Kaitlyn Dougherty stepped up and scored well above their season averages. DiDomenico scored 17 points, and Kaitlyn Dougherty scored 15 points.
Freshman guard Taylor Price added 13 points.
The Eagles fell behind 87-86 with 10.8 seconds remaining in overtime after a layup by FDU-Florham's Shalette Brown. Eastern's Emily McPeak quickly inbounded the ball to Dougherty as FDU-Florham was setting up in full-court man-to-man defense. Dougherty split a double team and saw Emily Lavin breaking free at half court. Dougherty passed to Lavin who dribbled in from the 3-point line and floated in a layup off the glass with five seconds left.
FDU-Florham had one last chance, but after dribbling the length of the court, the Devils' last-second layup attempt was no good.
The game proved to be a back-and-forth battle with the lead changing hands 16 times and the score being tied nine times, a much different story than when the Eagles lost by 30 to the Devils on the road in the middle of January.
The Eagles knotted the score at 40-40 with 3:14 to go on a jumper by Taylor Price and then took the lead for the first time in 13 minutes on a pair of free throws by Meghan Nowak with 2:03 left in the half. DiDomenico electrified the crowd with a 3-pointer with 1:51 to go that put Eastern ahead by five. The Devils matched Kaitlyn Dougherty and Kaleigh Boreman's layups, but the Eagles took a seven-point lead going into halftime after Meghan Nowak stole the ball from FDU point guard Alicia Cox and found Taylor Price for the jump shot with two seconds to go.
Eastern's lead was challenged in the second half as FDU brought in two regular starters Shalette Brown and Alyssa McDonough. Brown and McDonough did not play in the first half, but both fresh in the second half, they made an immediate impact. McDonough took over the primary ball-handling duties, dealing out five assists while scoring nine points and collecting five boards. Brown, the Devils' leading rebounder, amassed 16 boards (eight offensive and eight defensive), and scored 16 points.
The Devils led by five points with 3:43 left in the game after Kyra Dayon scored two of her team-high 21 points on a layup. The Eagles cut the Devils lead to one and then regained the lead on a layup by Lavin with 3:01 to go. McDonough put the Devils back in the lead with a 3-pointer with 1:52 to play, but DiDomenico knotted the game at 80-80 with 1:00 to go after beating the shot clock with a jumper in the paint that rolled off the front of the rim and in. The game stayed congested at 80-80, but Eastern had the ball on the sideline on their own end with three seconds left and a chance to win. The Eagles however, could not get the job done in regulation.
In overtime, Eastern held a one-point lead but turned the ball over with 30 seconds to go. The Devils took one-point lead with 10 seconds to go when Brown snuck behind Eastern's defense to the weak-side block and put up a quick layup. With FDU's defense scrambling to set up, Eagles' head coach Nate Davis elected to not use his timeout and let the players set up a play on the fly. The play which led to Lavin getting a quick layup worked to perfection and secured the upset for the Eagles.
With the win, Eastern clinched a spot in the Freedom Conference playoffs and tied the most wins in a season historically by Eastern Women's Basketball.
Note: Prior to Saturday's win, the highest-ranked NCAA opponent beaten by any Eastern squad was No. 2. Eastern Field Hockey beat the No. 2 Messiah Falcons in 2010. In November 1987, Eastern Men's Basketball beat St. Thomas Aquinas, the No. 1 team in NAIA.
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