Dani Dudek had 11 points, 11 assists, nine rebounds and six steals against Vassar on Monday. |
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. (November 27, 2006) – Sophomore guard Dani Dudek (Rockaway, N.J.) finished one rebound shy of posting her first career triple-double as the Stevens Institute of Technology women’s basketball team improved to 4-0 on the year with a 60-49 victory over Vassar College on Monday in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Dudek finished with 11 points, 11 assists, nine rebounds and six steals for the Ducks, who used a big second-half run to hand the Brewers (1-3) their third straight loss.
Trailing by two points (24-22) at the break, Vassar used a 15-7 spurt in the opening five minutes of the second half to grab a 37-31 lead. Sophomore forward Shannon Fuhr (Simsbury, Conn.) drained a pair of key three-pointers for the Brewers as they built a six-point cushion with 15:03 left to play.
After Vassar went ahead 40-38 on a jumper by senior center Rachel Cerlen (Florham Park, N.J.) with just over 11 minutes remaining, Stevens rattled off a 21-3 run over the course of the next 9:21 to take control of the game. Freshman guard/forward Sarah Gehring (Spokane, Wash.) got the Ducks going with her second straight three-pointer. Following a free throw by freshman forward Brittany Fuller (East Rockaway, N.Y.), junior guard Jean Matusiak (Queens, N.Y.) scored the next nine points – all in the span of 2:09 – for the Ducks. Matusiak sandwiched a pair of lay-ups around a jumper and then capped off her own mini-run with a three-pointer to put Stevens ahead 51-43 with 5:17 left in the game.
By the time junior forward Dora Enright (Longmont, Colo.) knocked down a jumper, the Ducks were in complete control as they led 59-43 with less than two minutes to go. Enright had five points in the decisive run for Stevens.
Enright finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds and three steals. Matusiak had 13 points, six rebounds and two assists. Gehring was 3-for-6 from downtown for nine points.
Dudek was the story of the game though as she did not commit a single turnover. In fact, over the course of the Ducks’ last two games, Dudek has amassed 22 assists while turning the ball over just one time. For the season, she is averaging nearly six assists per turnover (32 assists, six total turnovers).
In addition, Dudek’s 11 assists against Vassar tied her own school record for most assists in a game. Just last Tuesday, she had 11 helpers in a win over Fairleigh Dickinson University. The previous school record was set during the 2003-04 season when Gina Joyce (Fort Myers, Fla.) had 10 assists in a game against Maritime College.
Vassar was led by junior guard Melissa Jones (Winsted, Conn.), who had 11 points. Fuhr finished with nine points. Freshman forward Emily Haeuser (South Portland, Me.) collected a team-high 13 rebounds before fouling out with less than four minutes to play.
Stevens was able to pull out the victory despite shooting 33.8 percent (22 of 65) from the floor and 40.9 percent (9-for-22) from the foul line. The Ducks survived in large part due to their defense, which limited Vassar to 34.6 percent (18 of 52) shooting from the field. The Brewers also committed 28 turnovers.
Coming up on Thursday, Stevens will host Drew University at 7 p.m. That game can be seen live at www.duckcast.com. Last season, the Rangers rolled to a 69-50 win at home against the Ducks. Stevens will look to avenge that loss when the two teams meet later this week. The Ducks have already knocked off two opponents (FDU and Vassar) that they lost to last year.
