Ducks Clinch 3rd Seed in Empire 8 Basketball Tournament
Saturday, February 16, 2013
PITTSFORD, N.Y. (February 16, 2013) – The Stevens Institute of Technology women’s basketball team closed its regular season with a clutch win at St. John Fisher College Saturday afternoon, defeating the Cardinals by a score of 54-43 to secure a berth in the Empire 8 Championship.
The Ducks end the regular season with a record of 14-11 and a mark of 8-6 in the conference and will take on second-seeded Hartwick College in the semifinals of the Empire 8 Tournament next Friday night. Ithaca College is the top seed but cannot host so the Hawks will do so as the No. 2 seed.
Freshman forward Dylan Krause (Atlanta, Ga.) led the Ducks in scoring with 16 points. She also had eight rebounds, three assists, two steals and a blocked shot. Junior forward Avis Benjamin (Queens, N.Y.) closed an excellent weekend with 12 points, 15 rebounds, four assists, four steals and a block, while freshman guard Miranda Ripken (Fallston, Md.) had 12 points, five boards and a pair of thefts. Junior guard Lisa Tessitore (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.) was the fourth Duck in double figures with 10, also notching four rebounds and four steals in 30 minutes off the bench.
Stevens had a big 46-32 edge on the glass and had 13 second-chance points. The Ducks had 13 steals as a team and shot 36.5 percent from the field, 4-for-4 from deep and 12-for-21 at the line.
Fisher shot 28.3 percent from the floor, 29.6 percent from three and hit five of their 11 free throws. The Cardinals were led by sophomore guard Brooke Seavitt (Oro Valley, Ariz.) and freshman guard Mary Kate Cusack (Clifton Park, N.Y.).
The opening eight minutes went back-and-forth with neither team establishing an upper hand. The Cardinals went on the game’s first noteworthy run, turning a 9-5 deficit into a 17-9 lead with 10:29 in the first half outscoring the Ducks 12-0 over a span of just 2:27.
Krause responded with a three-pointer and Benjamin converted a layup to get back within five points, but the Cardinals answered with five in a row to go back up nine points with 4:49 to go in the opening period and ended up taking a 26-21 lead into the locker room.
The Ducks came out with four quick points to open the second period, with Fisher answering to go back up six with 14:42 remaining. Stevens then tightened up on defense, to go on a 13-1 run over a span of 6:06 to open a 43-37 lead of their own. A Krause three-pointer tied the game at 36-all, a Tessitore jumper gave the Ducks a lead with a little more than 11 minutes left and another Krause triple put the exclamation mark on the key stretch in the game.
After a Cardinal three made it a three-point game with 6:57 on the clock, the Ducks started to create some separation. A Krause jumper with a little more than five minutes to play pushed the Stevens lead to seven, and two free throws from Ripken made it 49-41 with 3:34 to play and the Ducks cruised home for the win.
Stevens held Fisher to just seven points over the final 14:42 of game time and just two made field goals. The Cardinals scored only 17 points in the entire second half on five field goals.
Check www.StevensDucks.com throughout the week for updates on the Empire 8 Championship hosted at Hartwick next weekend.
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