When you're hot, you're hot!  The University of the Sciences women's basketball team connected on seven of their first eight shots in the second half, overcoming a halftime deficit as they went on to defeat Holy Family University 65-53 Thursday night at the Bobby Morgan Arena.

The Devils improve to 11-7 overall with the win, their fourth straight.  Sciences also now sports a 7-3 conference record and are only one game behind in the loss column to both the Tiger and Philadelphia University, who also lost tonight.  Holy Family falls to 13-7 overall and 9-2 in league play.  The win is the Devils first regular season victory against the Tigers on their home court since February 7, 1995 (a 60-59 win).   Sciences did defeat the Tigers at the Morgan Arena in the CACC Tournament Championship game in 2006.  

Sciences placed four players in double figures led by Brianne Traub's (Eastern Christian HS/Wayne, N.J.) 16 points.  Carolyn Edwards (St. Basil's Academy/Huntington Valley, Pa.) broke out of her slump in a big way, connecting on six of eight shots from the field (including a 3-ball) for 13 points.  Jessica Sylvester (Nazareth Academy/Trevose, Pa.) provided the spark off the bench with 13 points (4-6 FG, 3-5 3FG)  and Becca Ruggear (Oxford Area HS/Oxford, Pa.) added 10 points and nine rebounds.  Isabella Ross (Central HS/Philadelphia, Pa.) grabbed 10 boards to lead all players andElsebeth Birman (St. John College HS/Silver Spring, Md.) had five assists whileSarah Hickman (Wilmington Christian School/Newark, Del.)  and Kaitlyn Schmid (Howell HS/Howell, N.J.) each had three helpers.  

Holy Family's lone player in double figures was Erin Mann, who scored all 15 of her points in the second half.  Carolyn Heston led the Tigers with seven rebounds.  Mann had three blocks.

Trailing by one at the break, The Devils opened up the second half with an 11-0 run to take a 33-23 lead at the 15:31 mark.  Ruggear started the scoring with a layup and Traub had six of the 11 points in the run.  An Edwards layup completed the run.  Mann's bucket broke the streak and made the score 33-25.  A triple from Edwards and two more 3-balls from Sylvester put the Devils up by 14, 42-28 with 12:08 left before the Tigers closed  the gap to six, 44-38, with a 10-4 spurt.  Sciences then got a layup from Traub and two free throws from Birman boosting the lead back to ten, 48-38.  The Tigers countered with a 9-4 spurt to pull within five after a layup from Molly Hanlon with 4:39 left but the Devils scored the next 10 points to take their biggest lead, 62-47 with just 1:11 left. Ruggear started things with a pair of free throws.  Ross and  Sylvester added baskets and then the Devils took to the free throw line.  Leading by 11 with just under two minutes to go, Ruggear twisted the dagger that was already in the Tigers' backs,missing the front end of a one-and-one but grabbing rebound off her own miss, getting fouled again and sinking two  followed by two more from Sylvester.   The Tigers had several chances to score during the Devils run but missed four straight free throws.  Katie Duma finally made a pair of freebies to break the Devils run.  However the Devils still led by 13 with 62 ticks left on the clock and added three more free throws to finish with a 13-6 run to close out the game and earn a 12-point win. 

The 7-for-8 effort to open the second half, led to a 13-24 mark in the period (54.2%) and a 44.2% effort (23-52) for the game.   Conversely the Tigers shot just 29.5% (18-61) for the game, which included a 1-for-17 mark from three point range.  Sciences connected on four of nine shots from beyond the arc and also shot 75% from the charity stripe (15-20).  The Tigers were 16-26 (61.5%) from the free throw line.   Both teams had 40 rebounds.  The Devils did take better care of the rock with a 15/18 assist turnover ratio (The Tigers were 7/14).

The Devils return to action on Saturday, January 28, 2011 when they travel to Concordia College to take on the Clippers in a CACC cross over match.