DALLAS, PA. – The Stevens Institute of Technology women's basketball team dropped its Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom opener Wednesday evening at Misericordia, 76-61.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The teams traded several early leads, with Dorothy Loffredo and Olivia Schubiger each contributing four points in the first five minutes, as Stevens (9-3, 0-1) held a 10-8 lead at the 4:27 mark. Coming out of a timeout, Misericordia embarked on a game-changing 26-10 run that spanned the rest of the half, putting the Cougars up 34-20 at the half. Schubiger finished the half with a team-leading six points, while Leyla Castro joined Loffredo with four.

After falling behind by 21 on a pair of occasions in the third, the Ducks closed to within 17 heading to the fourth and worked the margin down to 12 with four minutes to go thanks in large part to an eventual 6-for-15 mark from beyond the arc in the final quarter, but that was as close as they'd get, as the Cougars made 13 of 14 from the charity stripe in the second half.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Castro finished with a team-high 16 points, including a trifecta of three-pointers during the team's 26-point fourth quarter, adding five rebounds, and a team-high five assists
• Maya Abramson had seven points and pulled down a team-high seven rebounds, adding a block
• The team finished with 20 offensive rebounds, their fourth straight game with 20 or more after not reaching the mark once in first eight contests of the season
• Even with a 1-for-7 start, the team finished the game 34.6 percent from three-point territory (9-for-26), their highest mark in their last five games and second-highest mark in their last seven

UP NEXT
The Ducks welcome Arcadia, whom they knocked off in last year's conference semifinals, to Canavan Arena on Saturday at 1:00 PM.

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