GETTYSBURG, Pa. – A slow first quarter and a turnover prone first half by Eastern Women's Basketball were all Gettysburg needed as they cruised to a 73-57 victory over the Eagles. The Bullets opened with a 22-10 advantage after the opening quarter, and never looked back as they won the Gettysburg Invitational.

"We can't let this one linger," said Head Coach Eric Houston. "They wanted this one really bad, and we knew it was going to be a battle. It's just a tough loss, but they showed a lot of fight and battled through adversity today."

Gettysburg (6-2) opened the game with a 14-2 run fueled by nine Eastern turnovers. The Eagles (8-5) struggled to get anything going offensively in the opening quarter after Regie Robinson's jumper at the 8:28 made it a 4-2 game. They did not score again until the 2:59 mark on a pair of Robinson free throws.

In the second quarter, Eastern managed to fight all the way back to pull within six at 32-26 with under five minutes to play. However, Gettysburg found its offensive rhythm again and closed out the half on a 13-2 run to take a 45-28 lead into the locker room.

Overall in the first half, Eastern went 11-of-26 from the field shooting (.423)  while also going 0-of-4 from 3-point range. Robinson and Taylor Price were the two lone bright spots in the half for the Eagles as they combined to score 19 of the 26 points while also shooting a combined 7-of-12 (.583) from the field.

"I honestly don't know what contributes to our slow start," continued Houston. "We think we're going to come out well, but once the game starts, we look we are in cement and just don't move. I do believe that the injury factor has played a crucial role in it, and hopefully, we can get everybody healthy over the next few days."  

Eastern did manage to play better in the second half our scoring Gettysburg 29-28 but couldn't do enough to overcome the deficit and catch the Bullets.

Robinson led all Eastern scorers with 14 points while Price netted 13 points of her own. Amanda Riiff and Amber Anderson rounded out the double-digit scoring for Eastern scoring 11 and ten points respectively.

Jessica Porter led all Gettysburg scorers with 25 points and 11 rebounds. Emma Dorshimer netted 16 points while Emily Gibbons and Annie Reilly scored 15 and 10 points respectively.

"We took away a lot of positives, though," concluded Houston. "As far as us playing against great competition and being down one person, that being Lavin, I thought we did some great things. Ladies are stepping up and are excelling in certain situations.  I think that if they keep fighting and improving the way we are playing we will be ready for conferences."

Eastern will host FDU-Florham on January 13th at 6 pm.