HOBOKEN, N.J. (January 2, 2015) – Junior Kaitlyn Astel scored a career high 21 points and pulled down nine rebounds to lead the Stevens Institute of Technology women's basketball team to a 80-67 win over Alfred University Friday night.
 
The win was Stevens' (6-1) sixth in a row while Alfred fell to 3-6. During the streak, the Ducks have won by double-digits four times and scored at least 80 points twice.  
 
Junior Miranda Ripken finished second on the Ducks with 11 points while sophomore Brittany Washington chipped in with 10. Sophomore Erica Guketlov led with three assists. As a team, the Ducks forced 20 turnovers and shot 43.7 percent from the field.
 
A layup from sophomore Hannah Brophy five minutes into the game gave the Ducks a lead they would hold onto for the rest of the half. Alfred was able to keep it close though before junior Megan Petuskey's layup with nine minutes remaining gave the Ducks their largest lead of the half at nine.
 
From there the Saxons were able to chip away over the next few minutes, bringing the deficit to within one with just under six minutes to go off a three. That's as close as Stevens would allow them to get though as the Ducks closed the half by scoring the final six points to take a 39-32 lead into the break.
 
Stevens opened the second half with five unanswered thanks to a three point play from Ripken in the second minute of action. The Ducks were able to maintain that double digit advantage going forward before gaining a 16 lead with a three from sophomore Daphne Ginn during the eight minute mark.
 
A layup from freshman Megan Brown with five minutes remaining brought the lead to 18 before a Ripken jumper took it to 20. Alfred was able to muster some resistance with threes on back-to-back possessions in the four minute mark, but three pointers from Astel and freshman Sydney Darby extinguished the run and allowed the Ducks to cruise to the win.
 
Stevens will return to action tomorrow afternoon with a 3 p.m. game against Houghton College in Hoboken. Live stats and video will be available on stevensducks.com.
 
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