Fuller Posts Double-Double But Women's Basketball Win-Streak Ends At Four With Loss To Utica

1/5/2010 12:00:00 AM

UTICA, N.Y. (January 5, 2010) – Senior forward Brittany Fuller recorded her first double-double of the season with a team-high 17 points and 11 rebounds, but the Stevens Institute of Technology women's basketball team's four-game win-streak ended with a 58-51 loss to Empire 8 rival Utica College at the Clark Athletic Center in Utica, N.Y. The Ducks are now 6-5 on the year and 4-1 in conference play, while Utica improved to 8-2 with a 2-0 league ledger.

Junior forward Jessica Berry (Rome, N.Y.) put Utica on the board early, draining a triple after a Devon Croll (Vernon, N.Y.) steal just seconds into the game, but Stevens sophomore guard Dawn Garcia responded with a three of her own to pull the Ducks even at the 19:10 mark.

Berry then netted seven of the game's next nine points, finding the range from long distance after a Stevens' timeout to give the Pioneers a 10-5 lead. A pair of Jillian Barrett free-throws at 12:11 sliced the deficit to three, before a Garcia jumper, coupled with back-to-back Fuller layups, helped Stevens grab their first lead of the game, 13-11.

Croll knotted the game at 13 with a layup at 10:33 before hitting a three that spurred an 11-0 Pioneer run capped off by a pair of Meghan Fiore (Epping, N.H.) scores. Fuller ended the Stevens dryspell with a layup at 5:16 before junior center Victoria O'Connor drew a foul on a put-back and converted the three-point play to make it 22-18.

O'Connor then hit a runner in the paint to bring Stevens within two, but Utica senior forward Jessica Snyder (Elbridge, N.Y.) hit a jumper from the right elbow to up the Pioneer lead to four. O'Connor closed out the half by scoring her sixth-consecutive point for the Ducks, splitting a pair of free-throws at 1:19 to make it a three-point game heading into the intermission.

After a Paige Armstrong free-throw tied the game at the 17:34 mark of the second half, Croll and sophomore guard Katie McGee (Philadelphia, Pa.) combined to hit back-to-back threes to give Utica a six-point edge. A Croll free-throw just under the 15-minute mark increased the Pioneer lead to nine before a Fuller layup at 13:14 ended a four-minute Stevens' scoring drought, while bringing the Ducks within seven.

Snyder and Berry continued their hot-shooting, once again finding the distance from beyond the arc to help Utica tally six of the game's next eight points, but a Sarah Gehring three-pointer coupled with a pair of Fuller free-throws pared a once 10-point Duck deficit back down to five.

Down seven with 7:44 left, Stevens rallied, mounting a 7-2 run capped off by a Fuller layup to cut it to two with just under six minutes remaining. After a Fiore layup made it a two-possession game at 4:13, Berry netted five straight points to give Utica a nine-point lead, but Stevens responded with a Kathleen Schuckers turnaround jumper in the paint, followed by a Fuller three to trim the margin to four with just over a minute left in regulation.

Trailing by seven after a Croll steal and subsequent three-point play, Gehring hit her second triple of the evening to once again make it a four-point affair, but that was as close as the Ducks would get as McGee and Croll combined to go 6-for-6 from the charity stripe down the stretch, sealing the Pioneer victory.

O'Connor finished with nine points and 10 rebounds, while Garcia added seven points and six boards. Armstrong and Gehring added six points apiece in the loss.

Berry paved the way for Utica offensively, scoring a game-high 21 points while grabbing five rebounds. Croll finished with 16 points, four rebounds, and four assists, while Fiore tallied eight points and seven rebounds.

Stevens is back in action on Sunday, January 10 when it plays host to league rival Hartwick College.
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