Allentown, PA - At home on Saturday, Cedar Crest completed the season sweep against Colonial States Athletic Conference opponent Philadelphia Biblical University with an 83-53 victory.

Despite the margin of victory, the game was not without its challenges. The already-undermanned Falcons were without the services of leading scorer Lizzy Sunderhaus (Hamilton, OH/Stephen T. Badin) at the start of the game due to a class conflict. But Sunderhaus was at least able to put in a little more than 20 minutes during a break from her class, and luckily Cedar Crest welcomed freshman Kiersten Collins (Forest City, PA/Forest City Regional) back to the lineup from the injury list just in time to help close the gap.

Cedar Crest was slow out of the gate, only keeping pace with the Crimson Eagles for the first few minutes of the game until they finally took the lead for good at 16-15 when Sunderhaus hit a jumper at the 11:15 mark. The Falcons benefitted from the fact that PBU's main inside scoring threat, Emily Cronin, picked up her third foul just over eight minutes into the game and had to endure some seat time. With Cronin out, the Falcons seemed to have an easier time of things, finishing the half with a 29-10 run to enter the locker room up 43-25. Cronin made a brief return late in the half, but picked up her fourth foul and returned to the bench. Sophomore Amber Wehry (Klingerstown, PA/Tri-Valley Jr/Sr) had a particularly good half with 17 points on 5-9 shooting and a perfect 7-7 from the free throw line. Junior Megan DeMutis (Norristown, PA/Kennedy-Kenrick Catholic) had 10 first-half points, including two three-pointers.

The second half was more of the same, as the Falcons pulled ahead by as many as 25 points over the first seven minutes while Sunderhaus was still on the floor. But even after she returned to class at the 12:42 mark, her teammates were able to pick up the slack, allowing the Eagles no closer than 21 and stretching the lead at one point to 33 points en route to the 83-53 final.

Cedar Crest shot a blistering 80% from the stripe, making 12 of 15, while only committing five fouls and sending PBU to the line just twice. The Falcons outrebounded the Eagles 51-40 and caused 20 turnovers to their own 10.

All eight Cedar Crest players scored. Wehry led all scorers with 25 points and all rebounders with 11. DeMutis tied her career high with 18 points, freshman Mattie Hallquist (Catasauqua, PA/Catasauqua) had a career-high 13, and Sunderhaus chipped in 12 in just half a game. In particular, Collins showed no signs of rust with four points, a rebound and a steal in just nine minutes of play.

Hannah McArdle led the Crimson Eagles with 15 points and eight boards.

With the win, Cedar Crest improves to 5-15 on the season and is now 2-9 in the Colonial States Athletic Conference, while Philadelphia Biblical drops to 4-15 and 1-11 in the CSAC. Next, the Falcons hit the road for a trip to CSAC opponent Centenary College on Wednesday, February 1st, at 7:00 PM.