Stevens Earns Five-Straight W's to Close Regular Season
ONEONTA, N.Y. (February 18, 2012) – The Stevens Institute of Technology women’s basketball team (13-12, 9-5 Empire 8) earned themselves a rematch with Hartwick College in the opening round of the 2012 Empire 8 Tournament with a 60-54 victory over the Hawks (21-4, 12-2) in both teams’ final game of the regular season. Jillian Barrett (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Avis Benjamin (Queens, N.Y.) led the Ducks with 21 and 19 points, respectively.
In Saturday’s regular-season finale, the Stevens frontcourt provided the edge as forwards Victoria Webber (Silver Spring, Md.), Barrett and Benjamin combined for 52 of the Ducks’ 60 points and helped the visitors out-rebound the Hawks 41-33. Perhaps most telling, Stevens earned 30 points in the paint to just 10 for Hartwick.
The matchup was close throughout. The teams were tied at two, five, eight and 10 points each before Stevens took the first two-possession lead of the game on a three-pointer by Webber that made it 15-10 Stevens midway through the first half. But Hartwick scored the next five to tie it again at 15.
It was a game of runs, as the Ducks ripped off the next eight points – capped by a traditional three-point play from Barrett - to take what would be their largest lead of the afternoon. The Ducks would maintain that lead through halftime, but Hartwick kept chipping away at it and the teams went to their locker rooms separated by just one point at 30-29.
Webber hit a three out of the gate in the second, but Hartwick went on to score the next eight to take a 37-33 lead three minutes into the period. Neither team scored over the next five minutes as the game lapsed into a defensive quagmire. Overall, the Ducks held Hartwick to just 26 percent shooting from the field, though the Hawks forced 17 Stevens turnovers.
Benjamin finally broke everyone’s cold streak by hitting a free throw at the 12-minute mark, but Hartwick stubbornly clung to the lead as the game moved to the final minutes.
With less than five minutes to go it was Benjamin scored the tying and go-ahead points on a layup, giving the Ducks their first lead in 14 minutes.
Webber scored a big second-chance layup on the next possession, and Molly Spadaro (Sewell, N.J.) converted two free-throws to increase the Duck lead to five with four minutes to go.
Barrett sealed the victory with seven of the team’s final nine points, going 4-for-4 from the line and adding a three-pointer for good measure down the stretch. It was Barrett who pulled down the game’s final rebound as the buzzer sounded and signaled the Ducks’ fifth-straight victory.
With the win, the Ducks clinched the third seed in the tournament, while the Hawks became the league’s No. 2 seed with their loss. The two teams will rekindle their rivalry next Friday at 8 p.m. at No.1 seed Ithaca College in the first round of the Empire 8 Tournament.