Eagles' senior guard Gina DiDomenico scored a game-high 17 points in Eastern's win over No. 10 Williams College.

The Eagles dealt the Ephs their first loss of the season, snapping a nine-win start. Eastern improved to 8-3 with the win, stopping a two-game skid. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Eagles lost to two strong teams after holding first half leads.

For Eagles' head coach Nate Davis, the win showed him the team's resiliency. "This really shows the kind of character and maturity this team has," he said. "As I was building the schedule for this year, I was thinking I was nuts. But I also trusted our team. I'm really proud of their effort and their belief in themselves."

The 40 points allowed by Eastern were the second fewest for them all season. Coach Davis emphasized how important their defensive effort was. "[The game] wasn't pretty, but we just re-focused on defense and on what got us to where we are," he said. "You can overcome a lot of mistakes in the offensive end if you're playing great defense. That's what good teams do, they make you play ugly. To win an ugly game against a good team is a good sign for us."

When coach Davis said that the game wasn't pretty, he wasn't exaggerating. Both teams shot far below their season average in this slugmatch. Eastern shot 15-for-45 (33.3 percent) from the floor while Williams shot just 14-for-64 (21.9 percent). Williams took nearly half of its shots from long-range, going 3-for-21 (14.3 percent) from the 3-point line. Eastern shot much better from downtown, hitting 6-of-9 attempts (66.7 percent), which surprisingly was significantly better than their free-throw shooting. Eastern went an unseasonably low 15-for-29 (51.7 percent) from the free throw line. The two teams evened out in rebounds (46) and turnovers (16).   

The Eagles were led in scoring by senior guard Gina DiDomenico who finished with 17 points. DiDomenico hit three 3-pointers in the game, including two treys late in the first half that helped Eastern pull within one point. "Those were huge for us," Davis said. "That stretched the floor out for us. Williams had been content to pack their defense in. And when we hit a couple threes it helped our team believe."

Meghan Nowak, Eagles' senior forward, recorded her seventh double-double of the season with 16 points and 15 rebounds. Nowak made 5-of-7 seven free throws in the final 70 seconds to help the Eagles ice the game.

Eastern trailed for almost all of the first half, but never by more than two possessions. The Eagles led at 9-8 with 10:38 to go after a Meghan Nowak layup, but Williams regained the lead and held it for the next 10 minutes. Eastern kept Williams scoreless for the final four minutes of the half and pulled within one point at 22-21 with the second of DiDomenico's 3-pointers. Eastern finally scored again with 19 seconds remaining in the half on a free throw by Emily McPeak. The free throw knotted the game at 22-22 going into halftime.

In the Eagles past two games they had had a lead going into halftime but quickly lost it to start the second half. That trend reared its ugly head once more as Williams scored five consecutive points in 90 seconds. Coach Davis quickly called timeout to cauterize the wound. He said the coaching staff had discussed beforehand burning a timeout so early in the second half if they started slowly again. "I wanted to refocus them," he said. "We know how important those first five minutes are." 

The timeout seemed to work and Eastern held Williams from scoring for the next two-and-a-half minutes, but the Eagles still were playing from behind.

The turning point came for the Eagles with 12 minutes to go. DiDomenico hit another 3-pointer to pull Eastern within one. After getting a defensive stop, the Eagles came back down the floor and Kaitlyn Dougherty hit a 3-pointer to give Eastern the 34-32 lead.

The lead proved to be a permanent one. Dougherty added a jumper, and then Taylor Price finished a layup in transition to cap a 10-0 Eastern run and give Eastern the 38-32 lead with 10:36 to go. Coach Davis noted that as the tide began to change for the Eagles, they were limiting their turnovers and exhibiting increased hustle. With the lead in their possession, the Eagles only committed three turnovers the rest of the way. He lauded the tenacity of Price and Kaleigh Boreman especially for helping create second and third chances for the Eagles down the stretch. "The effort they put forward really changed the game for us," he said.

Eastern's Puerto Rico trip continues with exploring some historic tourist sights in San Juan on Sunday, and then the Eagles are back on the court on Monday against the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras.

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