Center Valley, PA (January 21, 2012) – Sophomore Megan Gallagher's offensive rebound and two free throws with 11 seconds left sealed a very important Freedom Conference win for the DeSales University women's basketball team, 65-61, over Eastern University on a snowy Saturday afternoon in Billera Hall.

Gallagher has a knack for making normally unnoticed plays seem really big and her constant hustle paid off on Saturday, grabbing an offensive rebound on a missed free throw from fellow sophomore Alexiah Grant with 11 seconds left and finished off the play by making two free throws after being fouled on the put-back, making it a two possession game and sealing the win for the Bulldogs (9-8, 4-2 Freedom) on Saturday afternoon.

Grant was also terrific, netting 15 points on a solid 6-for-13 shooting effort, 11 of which came in the second-half.  Senior Cherelle Simmons notched her fourth double-double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds and had a huge block late in the game, finishing with two blocks.

Sophomore Sondrine Glovas played well with 13 points and added four steals, coming out of a shooting slump to hit 2-of-3 from outside the arc, while junior Colleen Gavin also scored 13 points and added five boards and four steals.  Senior Hannah Smith had one of her best games since returning from injury in early January with six assists and just two turnovers in 24 minutes at the point.

Eastern (12-4, 4-2 Freedom) got 27 points, six rebounds, seven assists, and three steals from senior Shante Jones and freshman Meghan Nowak also played well with a double-double of 16 points and 10 boards.  Sophomore Katie Lincoln finished with nine points, including three important three's in the second-half.

The Bulldogs put together one of their finest defensive games of the season, holding EU to 14 points below its season average and forcing 25 Eagle turnovers after EU entered the game averaging just under 20 per game.

A quick 4-0 lead was answered by Eastern, who scored 10 straight points to lead 10-4 in the early going.  DSU battled back using an 8-0 run to take a two-point lead (21-19) with 6:20 left before Eastern regained control and led by three (34-31) at the break.  Both teams shot over 40 percent in the opening half, with Eastern converting 48.3 percent from the field.

Two straight jumpers from Gavin to start the second half gave DSU a 35-34 lead as the two teams traded leads for most of the first 16 minutes of the second half.

With Eastern leading by two (53-51) with 4:11 left to play Grant hit a jumper to tie it and after a quick steal in the back court by Glovas, Grant knocked down a three from the left wing to put the Bulldogs back on top, 56-53, with 3:54 remaining.

DSU did not lose the lead the rest of the way and after a Jones jumper made it a one-point game, six straight points from DeSales pushed the lead up to seven points (62-55) with 1:11 left.  A lay-up from Nowak cut it down to five points and after a DSU turnover, Jones made good on two freebies with 34 ticks left to make it a three-point game.

Gallagher missed two free throws on the other end and again Jones made DSU pay with a jumper in the lane cutting the deficit down to one with 16 seconds left.  Grant was fouled on the ensuing inbounds pass, made the first freebie but missed the second setting up Gallagher's offensive board and two free throws to ice the win.

After shooting 48.3 percent from the field in the opening half, the Bulldog defense clamped down and forced EU into 32.1 percent shooting in the second-half.  DSU had one of its better shooting nights this season, converting 39.3 percent from the field for the game and did a nice job taking care of the ball with just 19 turnovers, three below its season average.

The Bulldogs return to action on Wednesday, staying at home to host Manhattanville College in another important Freedom Conference game beginning at 6:00 pm.