DOYLESTOWN (PA) – Meghan Nowak and Bekah Roland combined for 47 points, 24 rebounds and six assists to lead Eastern University to an 85-73 victory over host Delaware Valley College in a Freedom Conference game.
The win improved the Eagles to 16-5 overall and 7-3 in the Freedom Conference. They are in a three-way for second place in the league standings behind undefeated King's College. The Aggies, who travel to King's on Wednesday, fell to 12-9 overall and 3-7 in the conference.
Nowak, a freshman, finished 10-for-18 from the field (2-for-3 from 3-point land) and 5-for-8 from the foul line for 27 points. She also added 13 rebounds, three blocks and two assists. Roland, a senior, was 8-for-15 from the floor and had 20 points, 11 rebounds and four helpers. The duo helped Eastern shoot 51.7 percent from the field, including 58.3 percent in the second half when the squad pulled away from Delaware Valley.
Eastern led by as many as nine in the opening half, but the Aggies, behind 15 points from Emily Soper and 11 from Brittany Battinieri, battled back and trailed by just three, 42-39, at the intermission.
Katie Lincoln opened the second stanza by draining a trey for Eastern, but Battinieri answered with 3-pointer of her own and Shannon Barlow had a putback to make the Delaware Valley deficit just one, 45-44, with 18:09 remaining.
However, the Aggies managed just two points over the next eight minutes while the Eagles poured in 15 for a 60-46 advantage. Nowak and Roland had nine of the 15 in the spurt for Eastern.
The Eagles built the lead to 20, 74-54, with 6:31 remaining, but Delaware Valley made one last run and scored 19 of the next 26 – nine by Battinieri and six by Soper - for an 81-73 deficit with 1:07 on the clock. The Aggies then had two chances to make it a two-possession game, but missed both opportunities. Eastern sank four free throws in the final 30 seconds for the 12-point win.
In addition to Nowak and Roland, Linclon and Kaitlyn Dougherty hit double digits for the Eagles with 15 and 14 points respectively. The two also combined for 11 rebounds.
Battinieri finished with 25 points and seven assists as the senior moved past two players and into seventh place on the Delaware Valley all-time scoring list. She has netted 1,260 points in her career and jumped 2005 graduate Bridget Golden (1,257 points) and 2007 graduate Rachel Joyce (1,253) on Saturday. Battinieri also moved up the Middle Atlantic Conference (Commonwealth Conference and Freedom Conference) 3-point charts as her five treys upped her total to 243 and past King's College's Jenna Palumbo (242 treys from 2004 to 2008) for third place.
Soper notched another double-double with 23 points and 11 rebounds. The junior eclipsed the 600-rebound mark (604 for eighth place) in her career and she is 28 points shy of becoming the 13th player in program history to hit the 1,000-point plateau.