HOBOKEN, N.J. (February 19, 2010) – Despite a pair of double-doubles from junior center Paige Armstrong and senior co-captain Brittany Fuller, the embattled Stevens Institute of Technology women's basketball team proved unable to topple undefeated Ithaca College, falling to the Bombers, 58-48, at Canavan Arena in Hoboken, N.J. The Ducks fell to 14-9 overall on the year and 10-4 in conference play, while Ithaca, now 20-4 on the season, became the first team in Empire 8 history to notch a 16-0 regular season slate.
The Bombers came out firing early, rattling off eight straight points on a Katherine Bixby (Philadelphia, Pa.) triple, a Jordan Confessore (Kendall Park, N.J.) three-point play, and a pair of Lindsay Brown (Danbury, Conn.) free-throws before Stevens sophomore forward Jillian Barrett finally put the Ducks on the board with a pair of points from the charity stripe.
Barrett then connected on a jumper at 17:26, spurring a 7-0 Ducks' spurt that made it 10-9. Ithaca responded with a 12-1 run off its own, capped off by a Devin Shea (Huntingdon Valley, Pa.) bucket, to stretch the lead to 12 with just under nine minutes remaining in the first half.
Stevens' sophomore Dawn Garcia trimmed the margin to nine with a triple on the Ducks' ensuing possession, but a pair of Jane DeBiasse (Chatham, N.J.) free-throws – after a nearly four-minute scoreless stretch – once again upped the margin to double-digits.
Stevens pulled within six on a Victoria O'Connor jumper that capped off a 7-2 Ducks' rally, but an Elissa Klie (Wyckoff, N.J.) three-pointer off the glass as time expired gave Ithaca a 29-20 edge heading into the intermission.
The Ducks roared back to start the second, mounting a 14-4 run over the first five minutes of action, taking their first lead of the game at the 14:48 mark. An Armstrong jumper kick-started the crucial run which was then followed by five-straight Gehring points. Fuller netted two free-throws that made it 33-29, before an Armstrong layup coupled with a deep Fuller three-ball gave Stevens the one-point edge.
Klie put Ithaca back on top with a jumper just shy of the 13-minute mark, as Bixby then tallied four of the game's next six points to stake the Bombers to a six-point cushion. Stevens again battled back, cutting it to one at 40-39 on an O'Connor layup and Fuller three-point play, but 11 unanswered Ithaca points over the next three and a half minutes of action gave Ithaca an 11-point lead – their largest of the half.
Stevens would cut it to four with just over a minute remaining on Fuller's second three of the night, but Ithaca went 6-for-8 from the charity stripe down the stretch, sealing the conference's first 16-0 regular season.
Armstrong and Fuller each finished with a team-high 11 points and 14 rebounds, with Armstrong going 5-of-9 from the floor. O'Connor chipped in with seven points and six boards, while Garcia had six points, four rebounds, four assists, and three steals in the loss.
Bixby finished with a game-high 17 points to lead the Bombers offensively, while Klie and Brown tallied 14 and 13 points, respectively.
Stevens returns to action on February 21 when it plays host to Rochester Institute of Technology.
