STONY BROOK, N.Y. – Chevannah Paalvast (Auckland, New Zealand/Massey) scored a game-high 14 points and dished out a career-high seven assists, but the Monmouth University women's basketball team fell to Eastern Michigan, 64-53, Sunday afternoon in the Seawolves Holiday Classic at Stony Brook University. With the loss, the Hawks fall to 1-10, while the Eagles improve to 9-1.

Jenny Horvatinovic (Red Lion, Pa./Red Lion Area) and Sara English (Smithtown, N.Y./Smithtown West [UMass]) added eight points apiece for the Hawks, with English also grabbing six rebounds. Christina Mitchell (Baltimore, Md./MATHS) led the Hawks on the glass with seven rebounds, while Sophie Beaudry (Chambly, Quebec/College-Notre Dame de Lourdes) made her presence felt on defense with two late blocks.

Janay Morton led Eastern Michigan, which entered the game averaging 87.9 points per game, with 13 points, while Jamaica Bucknor added 12 points, including 8-for-8 from the free-throw line, off the bench. Desyree Thomas added 11 points, six assists, six rebounds and four steals. Olivia Fouty contributed a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds, while Natachia Watkins also reached double figures in the scoring column with 10 points to go along with seven rebounds and six steals.

“I was actually really happy with the second half. I thought we played much better,” said Monmouth Head Coach Jenny Palmateer. “The big thing that we talked about at halftime was our turnovers. That's been the cause of a lot of the problems that we've had this season. We had way too many at the half. So we really focused on taking care of the ball better. That's a team that puts up 90 points per game. I thought our defense was really solid. When we took care of the ball, we shot a decent percentage. We just need the attempts. We're not a team that can afford to turn the ball over as much as we did. Overall, I'm really happy with the fight that our kids showed. We really paid attention to execution on the offensive end, took care of the ball better and we wound up winning the second half and had a lot of people do some really good things. There's a lot to build on in that game. I think it just shows that if we can play like that for two halves, we'll be in business.”

After the Hawks took a 7-4 lead in the early going, Eastern Michigan went on a 9-0 run to take a 13-7 lead with 8:35 to play in the first half. Monmouth closed the gap to 15-13 on jumpers from Shira Shecht (Pardessiya, Israel/Hadassim) and Paalvast, but Eastern Michigan outscored the Hawks, 17-4, over the final five minutes of the half to take a 32-17 lead into the break. Morton and Watkins led the Eagles with eight points apiece, while Paalvast led Monmouth with four points.

Monmouth fell behind by as many as 26 points, 47-21, at the 15:10 mark as Eastern Michigan scored 15 of the first 19 points in the second half. But the Hawks gradually whittled away at the Eagles' lead until a Kasey Chambers (Belmar, N.J./St. Rose) three-pointer from the top of the key cut the deficit to eight, 57-49, with 51 seconds left. But the Hawks would draw no closer as EMU made 9-of-10 free throws down the stretch.

For the game, Monmouth outshot Eastern Michigan, 40.4 percent (21-52) to 26.4 percent (19-72) from the floor, but was plagued by 30 turnovers to the Eagles' 10. EMU used the turnover discrepancy to outscore Monmouth, 24-12, in points off turnovers. The Eagles took a 21.7 percent (5-23) to 12.5 percent (1-8) advantage beyond the arc and a 91.3 percent (21-23) to 62.5 percent (10-16) edge from the free-throw line. Monmouth outrebounded the Eagles, 52-40.

The Hawks play their first-ever Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game on Dec. 29, when they host Saint Peter's. Opening tip from the Multipurpose Activity Center is scheduled for 2 p.m.