READING, Pa. - Fresh off its impressive performance against Messiah, Eastern Women's Basketball struggled offensively in a 56-46 loss to Albright in MAC Commonwealth play on Wednesday night at the Bollman Center.
Jeriyah Johnson scored in double figures for the eighth time in Eastern's last 10 contests, but the Eagles shot just 29.3 percent from the field in the loss.
Johnson led the Eagles with 13 points on five-of-13 shooting and made all three of Eastern's triples. Additionally, the Lancaster native finished with two rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal.
Miranda Liebtag and
Taryn Woodson each scored eight points and combined for 14 rebounds, while
Wynter Bess scored six points and led the Eagles on the glass with nine caroms.
Trinity Upton also had a strong game off the bench with five points and seven rebounds.
Johnson started the scoring with a triple, and both Liebtag and Woodson added baskets to put the Eagles up 7-4 in the early. However, five straight points from Albright's Mackenzie Dover put the host Lions ahead 9-7 with 6:55 to play in the opening quarter. Eastern got as close as one on jumpers from Bess and Upton later in the quarter, but Albright scored three straight points to take an 18-14 lead into the second frame.
Eastern shot just two-of-12 in the second quarter, but briefly grabbed the lead on a
Camila Sosa free throw. However, the Lions took control from there, using a 9-0 run to grab a 29-21 advantage with 2:04 to play in the first half. Albright never relinquished the lead, and went up by nine at halftime on a layup from Gigi Serrano with 18 seconds left.
Albright held between a five and nine point lead throughout the entire third quarter, and despite battling in the fourth, the Eagles were unable to pull any closer than three. A Johnson three early in the period made it 45-42, but after a long scoring drought, a Serrano free throw and a Dover jumper pushed the Albright lead back to six and snuffed out any Eastern comeback attempt.
Eastern (7-10, 3-4) hits the road again on Saturday to complete its season series against York. Tip-off is scheduled for 1:00 pm.
