ST. DAVIDS, Pa. - Eastern Women's Basketball claimed a big MAC Freedom victory over visiting King's College on Wednesday night 60-52. The Eagles used a 36 point first half and solid defense throughout the game to help them earn the victory and keep them in the heart of the playoff race.

"It felt great just to get a win let alone a conference win," said Head Coach Eric Houston. "This will help us move up in the standings and with hopefully securing a playoff spot."

Amanda Riiff opened the game with a 3-pointer helping spark a 7-1 by Eastern (11-11, 5-6 MAC Freedom) to start off the first quarter. The Eagles scored on three of their opening six possessions of the game. After a 3-pointer by King's (11-11, 4-7 MAC Freedom) made it a 7-4 game with just under six and a half minutes left to play in the quarter Regie Robinson knocked down a pair of free throws less than a minute later to ignite a 10-0 run by Eastern spanning over three and a half minutes. The run was capped off by back-to-back Ashley Kurdziolek 3-pointers stretching the Eagles lead all the way to 17-4.

The Lady Monarchs managed to cut the deficit to just eight after a Cayle Spencer 3-pointer made the score 19-11. However, the Eagles defense would never let King's get within ten points or less for the remainder of the half and really until the final minutes of play. With 3:49 left to play in the second quarter King's cut Eastern's lead to ten for the third time in the quarter at 26-16. It looked as if the Lady Monarchs were going to start chipping away at the lead and make a run right before halftime but Robinson once again sparked another scoring run, this time, a 10-1 spree stretching the remainder of the half to give the Eagles a 36-17 lead at the break.

"Defense, that was the goal tonight and to make stops," continued Houston. "Try to get into transition and try and go back to the things we did at the beginning of the season that brought us success. The defense was the main goal, and I am happy we performed well defensively tonight."

Eastern's offense managed to go 14-of-40 from the field in the first half shooting (.350) while going 5-of-12 from 3-point range. However, it was the defense that stole the show forcing ten turnovers, holding King's to a 6-of-29 mark from the field, and out-rebounding the Lady Monarchs 33-19.

Early on in the third quarter, the Eagles managed to stretch their lead to 20 at 41-21 after an Emily Lavin layup in the paint. However, King's managed to come all the way back to trail by only 11 with just over three minutes left to play in the quarter. Eastern though managed to regain its poise and close out the quarter on an 11-3 run capped off by an Amber Anderson buzzer-beating 3-pointer to take a 54-35 lead into the final quarter.

The Lady Monarchs came roaring back in the fourth however, opening the quarter on a 15-3 run to make it a 57-50 game with just under four and a half minutes left to play. The Eagles defense rose up again and held King's scoreless for four minutes until a layup by Olivia Hoffman with 25 seconds left finalized the score at 60-52.

"Give them credit their shooters got hot, and they began knocking down some big shots," said Houston. "The big things about this team though is we finish games off, and we get a lead we want to keep the lead."

Overall for the game Eastern held King's to an 18-of-35 performance from the field shooting (.340), going 6-of-17 from 3-point range, and out-rebounding the Lady Monarchs 53-35.

Robinson led all Eastern scorers netting 17 points. Meanwhile, Lavin posted her tenth double-double of the season scoring 15 points and recording ten rebounds.

Tara Zdancewicz led all King's players with 19 points while Hoffman rounded out the double-digit scoring with ten points.

"We have to control what we can control and not worry about everything else," concluded Houston. "If we come out and just compete and take care of what we as a team need to take care of we will be fine."

Eastern hosts Manhattanville on February 13th at 1 pm.