St. David's, PA (February 20, 2016) – The DeSales University women's basketball team erased a 10-point halftime deficit in a 74-70 win at Eastern University clinching the top seed in next week's MAC Freedom Tournament on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Bulldogs finish the regular season 19-6 overall and 12-2 in the MAC Freedom and will host Manhattanville College in the MAC Freedom semifinals on Wednesday evening in Billera Hall.  FDU-Florham will be the #2 seed and will host Delaware Valley University in the other semifinal game.
 
Junior Morgan McCollian led the charge in the win recording her 13^th double-double with 26 points and 11 rebounds.  Senior Jen Napolitano added 15 points and sophomore Kaitlin Kelly had 12 points in the win.  The freshman duo of Katie Miller and Morgan Birmelin combined to record 13 assists and just three turnovers in the win.
 
EU (12-13, 6-8 MAC Freedom) was led by freshman Regie Robinson with a team-high 24 points, sophomore Taylor Price added 19 points, and sophomore Amanda Riiff finished with 12 points in the loss.
 
DeSales started strong opening up a 9-6 lead thanks to three 3's from Napolitano.  Eastern took control from there using a 14-2 run to take a 24-12 lead.  The Bulldogs cut the margin down to four points mid-way thru the second quarter before the Eagles closed thehalf on an 8-2 run to take a 40-30 lead into the locker room.
 
DSU had a quick start to the second-half scoring the first seven points to pull within three (40-37) but the two teams went back and forth over the next several minutes and Eastern pushed its advantage back up to 10 points (54-44) with two minutes left in the quarter.
 
The Eastern lead was six to start the fourth quarter and remained five with 7:52 to go when DeSales made its run.  Miller started an 8-0 run with the first of two 3's during the spurt giving DSU a 67-64 lead with 4:30 to go.
 
DSU led by one with 1:46 left when Birmelin found McCollian in the lane for a lay-up and then iced the win at the line hitting 3-for-4 down the stretch.
 
The Bulldogs finished the game shooting 39.1 percent for the game and committed just six turnovers for the game.
 
The Bulldogs host Manhattanville in the MAC Freedom semifinals on Wednesday with game time set for 6:00 pm in Billera Hall.