GLENSIDE, Pa. – Olivia Schubiger played the full 40 and dropped a career-high 19 points, one of four players in double figures for the Stevens Institute of Technology women's basketball team in an 83-72 Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom semifinal win over Arcadia Wednesday night.

Leyla Castro finished right behind Schubiger with 18, Lucy Alberici had 15, and Katherine Bogutsky tied her career-high with 14.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The third-seeded Ducks led 6-4 early after Castro opened the game with a three, Alberici made a layup, and Dorothy Loffredo added a free throw. The two-point cushion grew to eight over the next two minutes, with Loffredo & Schubiger adding jumpers and Alberici hitting a tough angle shot off glass. The margin fluctuated between six and 10 under the two-minute mark of the period before a Bogutsky right corner three and two Alberici FTs put the Ducks up 23-11 after 10 minutes.

Schubiger opened the second quarter with a jumper in the lane and Bogutsky added a free throw, pushing the Stevens (18-8) lead out to 15, 26-11, but Arcadia (17-9) came all the way back to tie at 31 with 64 seconds left in the half; Bogutsky buried another three and Alberici added a pair of free throws during that stretch. Over those final 64 seconds, Schubiger made three free throws bookended around a rainbow runner off-glass by Isabella Duval, with a last-second Arcadia layup sending the Ducks to the locker room up three, 36-33.

Alberici opened the second half going off glass, putting the Ducks up 38-33, with a Bogutsky right corner three and Schubiger layup pushing the lead back to double digits. Schubiger added three more jumpers, Bogutsky & Castro each knocked down three's, and Fiona O'Boyle put home a jumper, putting the Ducks up 12 with 1:41 left in the third. After two Arcadia layups worked the margin back to eight, Schubiger set her new career-high with a buzzer-beating jumper, leaving the Ducks up 10 with 10 minutes to play.

The second-seeded Knights attempted one comeback after another late in the fourth, cutting the Ducks' lead to five with 3:18 left, then four with 1:34 left, but the Ducks maintained at least a two-possession lead the entire period. Castro finished the frame with 11 -- including a seven-for-eight clip at the line in the final 2:30 --, Kehoe scored eight of the Ducks' 10 points over a four-minute stretch, and Alberici added the final four of the quarter with a jumper just past the midway point of the quarter and a pair of late FTs.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Stevens improved to 7-3 all-time against Arcadia, with Wednesday marking the first-ever postseason clash between the schools.
• Arcadia averaged 10 three-pointers made in two regular season games against Stevens; the Ducks' defense held them to five Wednesday night.
• As a team, Stevens shot 47.5 percent from the floor Wednesday night after not cracking 31 percent in either regular season game vs. the Knights.
• Alberici and Castro, the team's two leading scorers, combined for 33 Wednesday night after averaging 20.5 PPG between them in the regular season meetings with Arcadia.

UP NEXT
The Ducks will host No. 4 DeSales, who knocked off the top seed Lebanon Valley on Wednesday, on Saturday at Canavan Arena at a time to be determined. Both road teams won Wednesday night, the first MAC Freedom Tournament road win(s) for any women's program since the 2019-20 season.

Stevens swept the Bulldogs in the regular season.

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