Phoenix, AZ- Newcomer Senior Madison Austin scored 22 points to lead Arizona Christian past Eastern Oregon 75-68 on Friday in the season opener for both teams.  Senior Alyssa Gruber and Freshman Courtney Christmas both added 15 points.

For the Firestorm (1-0) and the Mountaineers (0-1), they opened with a significant change to their game.  Across all NCAA and NAIA levels of collegiate women's basketball the game has switched from two 20 minute halves to four 10 minute quarters while men's basketball continues to play two 20 minute halves.

Three and half minutes into the new format, season, and game neither team had scored.  Austin, making her Firestorm debut after playing at Northern Arizona last year, opened the scoring with a three pointer.

EOU scored the next five points and went on to build an eight point lead.  They maintained a 15-12 edge with 82 seconds to play in the first quarter.

However, Arizona Christian scored the last five points of the quarter on two free throws from Junior Samantha Young and another three pointer from Austin.

After the quarter break, Eastern Oregon came out firing away and scored the first 10 points of the second quarter that soon turned into a 29-20 Mountaineer lead.  The Firestorm responded by outscoring EOU 17-5 in the final five and a half minutes of the half.  Christmas had a nice five point run during ACU run including her first collegiate three pointer.  Austin closed out the half with the final seven Firestorm points.

Austin scored 13 first half points- the only player on either team to reach double digits in the first 20 minutes.

Eastern Oregon made a three pointer out of the break to tie the score at 37-37.

But Christmas countered with a made layup and one to give ACU a lead they would enjoy the remainder of the quarter.

The Mountaineers accounted for the first five points of the fourth quarter and maintained the lead at 56-55 with just under seven minutes to play.  Ultimately, the game was tied at 61-61 with 4:58 to play.

Gruber drove through the paint to score the go ahead basket and the Firestorm closed out the game building as large as an eight cushion down the stretch.  Gruber scored nine of her 15 points in the second half.

Christmas delivered eight of points and all four of her assists in the second half.

Austin concluded her first game with a team high nine rebounds as well.

Head Coach Odell Berry commented, "Tonight we ran in to a team that was well coached and a team that played together very well.  They could very easily be the best rebounding we have played since I have been at ACU.  It was a total team effort by the Firestorm. We were down a couple of times and came back. We had the lead down the stretch and EOU just kept battling their way back but our girls stayed focused and held them off for a well deserved win."

On Saturday, the same two teams will face off in Fultz Gym with a start time of 4:00 pm (MT).