Eastern U Women Savoring Weekend Upset Of Nation's No. 1 Team

By Matt Leon

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- It was quite the Saturday afternoon on the Main Line campus of Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania.

That's because the Eastern women's basketball team pulled off a stunning upset of the #1 team in the country in Division III, FDU-Florham, the Eagles pulling out an 88-87 decision in overtime. FDU-Florham, who won the national championship last season, saw its 53-game winning streak snapped.

"The girls are doing a great job this year," Eastern head coach Nate Davis tells KYW Newsradio. "As far as feeling real, I think it's starting to set in, no doubt about that. The great thing about basketball is if you have a bad loss, you get to move on to the next game and the same applies for wins. Obviously, our attention has moved on a little bit, allowed the weekend for the girls to kind of enjoy that, but obviously today we're going to get back at it."

Listen to the entire interview with Nate Davis

This is the highest profile highlight for the Eagles, but they have been having an outstanding season. Eastern is 17-4 (9-1 in the Freedom Conference), so Davis felt like they could match-up with the Devils.

"I think we did feel comfortable that we could at least compete," Davis says. "There's no doubt about it. We had played them earlier in the year, up there at their place, and didn't do a very good job and had a pretty bad result to be honest with you. We lost by 30 up there (78-48 on January 14th). But we all felt like that wasn't us, as a team, and it wasn't something that represented us very well. And I (thought) if we played our game, and played aggressive that we would have a chance to win at the end. So I think we felt pretty good about our odds, believe it or not."

The Eagles were led by senior forward Meghan Nowak on Saturday. The Gateway Regional High School product poured in 24 points and pulled down 13 rebounds. It's the latest big performance for her in a season which has seen her average 19.7 points and 9.5 rebounds per game.

"Her consistency's really allowed us to have the kind of year we've had," Davis says.

But Nowak wasn't alone in coming up big on Saturday. Sophomore forward Emily Lavin had 15 points, 15 rebounds and 8 blocks. A couple of senior guards also stepped up as Gina DiDomenico poured in 17 points and Kaitlyn Dougherty added 15.

There is still a lot of work to do this season, but Davis thinks what his team did on Saturday will stay with them.

"Saturday's game gives us an additional boost of confidence," Davis says. "That's always been the step, as you're trying to build a program, that belief or that confidence that it can be done is so valuable. And we don't take it for granted at all. So I think Saturday was a huge step for us in that way."

Eastern will return to the court on Wednesday night as they travel to King's College.

You can follow  Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.