HOBOKEN, N.J. (January 3, 2011) – Junior forward Jillian Barrett (Philadelphia, Pa.) netted a game-high 12 points and pulled down eight rebounds as the Stevens Institute of Technology women's basketball team upended visiting Hunter College, 61-37, at Canavan Arena in Hoboken, N.J. Originally scheduled to be played at the Hunter Sportsplex in New York, N.Y. the game was moved to Castle Point because of a power outage. Despite the change in venue the Ducks cruised to their fifth-consecutive victory, moving to 8-1 overall on the season. With the loss the Hawks fell to 3-8 on the year.
Junior Isaura Guzman (Union City, N.J.) finished with 10 points and three rebounds, while senior center Victoria O'Connor (Westwood, N.J.) added nine points and nine boards. Junior guard Dawn Garcia (Brooklyn, N.Y.) chipped in with nine points and five assists, while freshman Molly Spadaro (Sewell, N.J.) had eight points on 3-for-4 shooting.
Freshman forward Kristen Markoe (Staten Island, N.Y.) led the Hunter offense with 11 points and six rebounds, while sophomore guard Johanna Keilwitz (Wolmirstedt, Germany) added 10 points, going 3-for-6 from the field. Seniors Shamar Stewartson (Springfield Gardens, N.Y.) and Christina Baker (Brooklyn, N.Y.) combined for nine points and nine rebounds in the loss.
The Ducks raced out to an early 7-0 lead on a pair of Paige Armstrong (Fair Haven, N.Y.) buckets and a Garcia triple before Markoe put the Hawks on the board with a layup at 16:27. Minutes later, Stewartson trimmed the lead to three, knifing into the lane for two, but Stevens responded, reeling off 13 unanswered points to take a 16-point lead just shy of the 10-minute mark.
O'Connor got the run started with a layup at 12:43, before back-to-back Guzman and Garcia threes upped the lead to 15-4. Guzman then buried another trey before freshman Jen Thompson (Linwood, N.J.) capped off the run with her first points of the evening.
Markoe would momentarily quell the Ducks' surge with a three of her own, but Stevens again answered, this time rattling off 11-straight points, taking a 31-7 edge on a Catherine Keough (Barnegat, N.J.) layup with just over a minute remaining in the half. Hoping to cut into the margin before the break, Hunter closed out the frame with five-consecutive points, on a pair of Baker free-throws and a Keilwitz three-point play, as the Hawks pulled back within 19 heading into the locker room.
The Ducks picked up where they left off to start the second, with Barrett and Spadaro both connecting from behind the arc to up the Ducks' lead to 22. Markoe would pare it back down to 37-18 with a three of her own, but Barrett tallied five-straight points on another triple and a layup to put Stevens back up 24.
Hunter mounted a 9-4 run over the next three minutes of action, cutting it to 19 on a Stewartson three-pointer, but Spadaro hit from distance at 10:05 before driving into the lane for a layup, putting Stevens back on top, 51-27.
Consecutive Keilwitz and Markoe threes pulled the Hawks within 18 at the six and a half minute mark, but that was as close as Hunter would get, with Stevens putting together a 9-0 run, capped off by an O'Connor layup, to put the game away.
Dialed in from distance, the Ducks buried eight threes on the night, while a stingy Stevens defense held Hunter to a paltry 23.6 percent (13-for-55) shooting percentage. The Ducks also dominated inside, holding a decisive 50-34 rebounding edge, while outscoring the Hawks 27-8 in the paint.
Stevens returns to action on January 7-8 against conference rivals Rochester Institute of Technology and Nazareth College.