Strong Offensive Effort Leads Devils to Victory

The University of the Sciences women's basketball team turned in their best offensive performance of the season Saturday afternoon as they defeated Wilmington University 71-27 at the Pratt Center in New Castle, Delaware.

The win improves the Devils record to 6-2 overall and 2-0 in Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference games.   Their 6-2 start is their best eight-game start since the 2003-2004 season.  Wilmington falls to 1-8 overall and 1-3 in league play.

Caitlin Shaw (Monmouth Regional HS/Eatontown, N.J.) led four Sciences' players in double figures with 16 points (6-9 FG, 4-4 FT).  Caitlin also added 12 rebounds for her second double-double of the season. Marissa Chesnavich (Bishop O'Reilly HS/Pittston, Pa.) added 14 points on a perfect 7-for-7 shooting effort from thew field.  Colleen Christian (Central Bucks South HS/Warrington, Pa.) connected on five of nine shots from the field (1-2 3FG) to contribute 11 points.  Christian also had a career high seven assists.   Becca Ruggear (Oxford HS/Oxford, Pa.) came off the bench with 10 points (3-6 FG, 4-8 FT) while grabbing seven rebounds.  Melissa Rotz (Central Dauphin HS/Harrisburg, Pa.) also had five assists. 

Danielle Thomas led the Wildcats with six points while Silvia Jankova, Ashley Davison and Lauren Brown had five point apiece. Niya Walker had nine rebounds and Courtney Coleman three assists to pace Wilmington in those departments.

A contrast in offenses in the game as the Devils had the hot hands, shooting 57.4% from the field (27-47) while the Wildcats did not, making just 10 of 57 shots for the game (17.5%).  Wilmington was not much better on the free throw line, making just three of nine (33.3%) while Sciences connected on 13 of 19 (68.4%).  Both teams committed 20 turnovers but the Devils took full advantage of their opportunities scoring 17 points from the Wildcat miscues while the Wildcats scored eight off the Devils 20 turnovers.  Sciences did dish out 22 assists to Wilmington's seven.

The Devils led this one wire-to-wire jumping out to a 20-8 lead in the first ten minutes.  The Devils defense then kicked into high gear, limiting the Wildcats to just two field goals over the final ten minutes.  Sciences also turned on their offense, and despite a stretch of four minutes when they did not score, closed out the half with a 16-5 spurt to lead 36-13 at the break.

The Wildcats shaved a single point off the lead in the first four minutes until a 13-2 spurt by the Devils (including eight points on four layups from Chesnavich) boosted the lead to 33, 53-40.  Five straight points from Lauren Brown cut the lead to 28, but Sciences got layups from Shaw and Christian to lead 57-25.  Brown's FG at the 10:25 mark was the Wildcats last of the game, with the hosts adding just two more points on free throws, the last coming at the 8:14 mark and making the score  57-27.  The Devils closed out the game scoring the last 14 points, which included three-point field goals from Carolyn Edwards (St. Basil's Academy/Huntington Valley, Pa.) and Erica Simi (West Windsor-Plainsboro HS/West Windsor, N.J.).  Edwards finished the game with six points and Simi with three.  Sarah Hickman (Wilmington Christian School/Newark, Del.) also had six points for the Devils. Rotz and Alyssa Hamm (Academy Park HS/Sharon Hill, Pa.) rounded out the scoring for Sciences with a pair of free throws apiece.