Center Valley, PA (January 29, 2011) – Freshman Sondrine Glovas was on fire on Saturday afternoon lighting up Eastern University for a season-high 25 points leading the DeSales University women's basketball team past the Eagles, 67-57, in a crucial Freedom Conference game in Billera Hall.
Glovas tallied her game-high 25 points on an 11-for-15 shooting night and also pulled down seven rebounds. Senior Lori Lidlow added 21 points, doing most of her damage from the free throw line where she canned 10-of-13, while junior Cherelle Simmons finished with seven points and six boards. Freshman Megan Gallagher also played well, pulling down seven boards off the bench and coming up with a huge steal late in the game.
Juniors Shante Jones and Bekah Roland combined for 39 points and 19 rebounds for the Eagles, while the rest of the team shot just 3-for-16 from the field.
The first half was a back-and-forth battle that saw five lead changes and two ties before a 9-0 DeSales run mid-way thru the half turned a one-point deficit into an eight-point lead (24-16) with 4:46 left to play. All five starters scored for the Bulldogs during the run.
Eastern got within four once with 36 seconds left but a Glovas shot put-back jumper at the buzzer pushed DeSales ahead by six, 29-23, entering the halftime locker room.
DeSales pushed its lead to as many as 12 points (42-30) before the Eagles made one final rush, scoring six straight points to get within six (42-36) with 9:32 left to play.
The Bulldog freshmen however led another DSU charge as freshman Faith Gilbert hit a three, Gallagher grabbed three huge rebounds and made a crucial steal, and Glovas provided the exclamation point with two three's during a 13-5 run over the next 5:38 to put DeSales up 55-41 and the Bulldogs never looked back from there.
DeSales (12-7, 5-3 Freedom) once again did a sensational job in forcing turnovers, pressuring Eastern (10-8, 3-5 Freedom) into 27 miscues. DSU also owned the glass out-rebounding EU, 45-37, including 24 offensive rebounds and 19 second-chance points.
The Bulldogs will return to action on Wednesday, February 2nd when they host Manhattanville College in another rematch of an earlier season loss with tip set for 6:00 pm.