Center Valley, PA (January 12, 2011) – Seniors Lori Lidlow and Megan Montchyk combined for 30 points and the DeSales University women's basketball shook off a poor shooting first half with a strong second half en route to a 56-44 win over Misericordia University in Freedom Conference action on Wednesday night in Billera Hall.
Lidlow totaled a game-high 18 points and added four assists, while Montchyk tossed in 12 points on a 4-of-6 shooting night and also pulled down six rebounds. Sophomore Colleen Gavin, junior Cherelle Simmons, and freshman Megan Gallagher each had six points in the win and Simmons led the charge on the glass with eight pulls.
Christine Marks had 17 points and seven rebounds for the visitor's, while Jesse Robinson (14 points) and Courtney Sykes (10 points) also reached double figures.
The first half was an offensive challenge for both teams as DSU (8-6, 2-2 Freedom) started the game 1-for-14 from the field with the one make a banked three-pointer from Lidlow but kept itself close on the defensive end forcing 12 first-half turnovers by the Cougars (7-6, 3-1 Freedom) and holding MU to just 33.3 percent shooting.
Tied at 19, Gavin hit a jumper at the 1:53 mark to put the Bulldogs up 21-19 as both teams entered the halftime locker room.
In the second half DeSales much sharper on offense, shooting 46.4 percent and only committing four turnovers in the final 20 minutes. A 10-2 run out of the locker room door pushed the two-point halftime advantage quickly up to 10 points (31-21) on the strength of three-pointers from Lidlow and Montchyk and DeSales never really looked back from there.
The lead peaked at 15 points once (52-37) and never fell below double digits over the final nine minutes of the game. Misericordia was unable to get anything going against the DeSales defense, shooting just 26.3 percent in the second half and 30.0 percent (12-for-40) for the game.
The Bulldogs continued to take excellent care of the ball committing just nine turnovers for the game and held a slim 35-34 advantage on the glass despite Misericordia entering the game out-rebounding the opposition by 6.4 boards per game.
DeSales returns to action on Saturday when they take on FDU-Florham in another Freedom Conference contest beginning at 1:00 pm.