CENTER VALLEY, Pa. - Eastern Women's Basketball lost to  DeSale University 71-52 on Wednesday night. The Bulldogs defense swarmed the Eagles forcing 32 turnovers and scoring 28 points off those turnovers. DeSales forced Eastern to go 15-of-42 from the field shooting (.357) for the night.

"It's just poor and uninspired basketball," said Coach Eric Houston. "We were hanging tough and even with all our mistake we still were in this game but this a tough league and playing like that will catch up to you eventually." 

Early on the game was a back and forth battle with each team trading baskets on their first few possessions. DeSales (13-5, 6-1 MAC Freedom) held a slim 6-4 lead with just under seven minutes left to play in the first quarter. Eastern (9-9, 3-4 MAC Freedom) looked to respond, but nine possessions later the Eagles had committed four turnovers, missed five shots and watched as the Bulldogs went on a 9-0 run to stretch their lead all the way to 13-4 lead at the 2:49 mark if the first quarter. Taylor Price managed to cut the deficit to 13-7 after converting a layup and an and-one opportunity. 

     

Eastern managed to battle back in the second quarter cutting the lead to single digits on two separate occasions. After a 3-pointer from Taylor Azer to cut the deficit to 24-14 Azer was fouled on the very next possession on another 3-point attempt. She knocked two of three to pull the Eagles within eight. Just under two minutes later Azer hit another 3-pointer to make it a 27-19 game. That would be the last field goal, however, Eastern would make for the remainder of the first half.

Both teams would exchange free throws for the remainder of the half as the only means of points. Despite all the back and forth and turnovers though DeSales only held a slim seven-point lead at the break, 29-22.  

"We battled and gave ourselves a chance," continued Houston. "I thought that despite all the turnovers, all the missed shots, and all the mistakes we were right in the thick of it at the half."

Overall for the first half Eastern committed 20 total turnovers compared to just 9 by the Bulldogs. DeSales managed to score 16 points off the Eagles turnovers.  

DeSales managed to pull away in the second half scoring 42 points in the final two-quarters of play. The Bulldogs finished the game with a 25 point fourth quarter to seal the win. 

Over the final ten minutes of play DeSales never held a lead smaller than ten points and closed out the game on a 16-7 run in the final four and a half minutes of play. 

"You have to hand it to DeSales though they are not the best team in our conference for no reason," said Houston. "They are very capable of having a half like that and we knew that going in. We knew that if we let them start to get on a roll and not be playing our best when that happened it was not going to turn out well for us. That was exactly the case tonight."

Regie Robinson scored a team and game high 20 points while Price rounded out the Eastern double-digit scoring with ten points. 

Morgan McCollian led all DeSales scorers with 18 points while Kaitlin Kelly netted 17 of her own. Katie Miller rounded out the double-digit scoring recording 11 points. 

"There is nothing we can do about it now," concluded Houston. "We are 3-4 in conference and 9-9 at the halfway point of MAC Freedom play. We have a tough game on Saturday that we need to be ready for. First half conference play is over and done with, and now we need to refocus and play the way we know we can." 

Eastern travels to Delaware Valley on January 30th for a 1 pm tipoff.