Aston, Pa.— Eastern University Women's Basketball (4-4) used a 16-to-0 third-quarter run to build a ten-point lead and held off a late charge to earn a 57-53 win over the host Neumann University Knights. First-forward Tychelle Gordon led the Eagles with a career-best 16 points.

With the two teams tied at 22 at halftime, the Knights scored eight of the first ten points in the second half. Gordon started the decisive run with a lay-in off a good feed from Dominique Geiger. Gordon the grabbed an offensive rebound and finished in close to close to within two points. After Adrianna Summersett made a pair of free throws to tie the game, Jeriyah Johnson made five straight points on a pair of jumpers and fed Gordon for an and-1 lay-up inside. Ariyana Hester finished the run with a nice stop-and-go move off the left side to put the Eagles up 40-to-30 with 90 seconds to play in the third quarter. 

The Knights (1-6), who will be joining the MAC Commonwealth next season, scored the final five points of the quarter to pull to within five. 

Eastern's first three baskets of the fourth quarter came from distance. Summersett hit long-range efforts on either side of a Damiyae Moyet 3-pointer.

The Knights closed the gap to 53-52 in the final two minutes, but Johnson scored on a Geiger assist with 25 seconds left for a little space. After the Knights made one-of-three shots from the line with 15 seconds left, Sophia Vera made two clutch foul shots to seal the final result. Those two foul shots were her first two points of the game.

Gordon made 7-of-11 shots from the floor and grabbed seven of her nine rebounds at the offensive end. Johnson finished with 12 points and Summersett added 10. Geiger grabbed nine rebounds and a pair of assists. The Eagles made 7-of-19 from 3-point range while holding Neumann to only 4-of-18 from deep. Eastern made only 8-of-15 from the line.

"I'm proud of us for getting a win on the road that was down to the wire," Eastern Head Coach Sarah Fowler said after the game. "It was exciting, and we grew in maturity as a team tonight. Our defense was solid overall and helped us get our groove back on offense."

Eastern had a commanding 49-to-31 edge on the glass and a 14-to-1 edge in second-chance points. 

Though the two teams have only played four times since Easter n left the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference after the 2007-08 season, tonight's win was Eastern's first win in Aston since 2005. 

The Eagles will have a break for finals and will return to action on Wednesday Dec. 16 with a home game against the Susquehanna University Riverhawks.