Glenside, Pa. – The Stevens Institute of Technology women's basketball team advanced to the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom Final with a dominant wire-to-wire 76-44 victory on Wednesday night over Arcadia.
Leyla Castro played the full 40 minutes and dropped a career-high 31 points while
Olivia Schubiger had 20 and
Dorothy Loffredo had 10.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Stevens (20-6, 10-4) led by five less than five minutes in, by nine six minutes in, and 13 at the end of the first quarter. The Ducks were 7-for-14 from the floor and 3-for-5 from three-point territory in the opening 10 minutes while outrebounding the Knights 13-6. Castro had 13 of the team's 19 points in the quarter, more than twice as many as Arcadia's team total.
Arcadia made a run early in the second quarter, but Stevens finished the half with a flourish. The Knights opened on a 9-0 run, but a Castro three and back-to-back jumpers from Schubiger kept Stevens comfortably in front. At the 2:46 mark, a three-pointer pulled Arcadia to within six, 26-20, but flipping the script from the start of the quarter, the Ducks closed with a 9-0 run, with Castro contributing five for a 21-point first half. Stevens finished the opening 20 hitting 5-of-9 from beyond the arc; Arcadia was 2-for-16.
The halftime break did not slow the Ducks down, as the Red and Gray hit 10-of-17 from the floor in the third quarter. Schubiger & Castro each had seven, Loffredo added four,
Isabella Duval &
Katherine Bogutsky each added three, and
Fiona O'Boyle pitched in two as Stevens outscored the Knights 26-8 in the period for a 61-28 lead heading to the fourth.
Stevens' lead ballooned to 41, 74-33, before Arcadia scored 11 of the game's final 13 points in garbage time.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Castro's monster night marked her seventh straight game with at least 16 points and was the highest individual single-game output since Jess Broad had 32 against Montclair on November 19, 2022
- Schubiger hit 20 points for the sixth time this season and fourth time in her last eight games
- Loffredo reached double figures for just the second time in her last 12 games
- Stevens has now won at least 20 games for the second time in four seasons (2022-23)
UP NEXT
The third-seeded Ducks will play in their fourth MAC Freedom title game in five years on Saturday against the top-seeded DeSales Bulldogs at 1 PM from Center Valley, Pa.
#AllRise
