DALLAS (Pa.) – First-year Alexis Wright posted season-best numbers in points and rebounds and the Delaware Valley University women's basketball team put together a big third quarter to overcome Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom foe Misericordia University, 74-68, on the road on Saturday afternoon.
The Aggies improved to 8-6 overall and 4-1 in the MAC Freedom while the Cougars dropped to 9-5 and 2-3.
Each team started the game hot and played to a 9-9 tie after the first five minutes of play. DelVal scored the next seven points to take the largest lead of the game to that point at seven. The Aggies took a 21-17 into the second as Wright and Haley Keenan combined for 11 points with the team shooting 50-percent (7-for-14) from the field. Alyssa Bondi had two treys in the stanza and paced Misericordia with eight points.
The Cougars outscored DelVal 18-8 in the second and Bondi hit a pair of 3-pointers at the end of the half to turn the tide and give the home team a 35-29 lead after two quarters. Bondi and Skylar Downing combined for all the home team's points in the quarter and combined they shot 4-for-6 from beyond the arc. Misericordia was 7-for-11 from deep in the first half as a team.
Meanwhile, the Aggies made just 4-of-13 field goals in the second with first-year Maisie Neuber leading the way with four points.
In the second half, the Cougars maintained a seven-point lead after a trey from Elizabeth Fasti made it a 38-31 game. DelVal used the free-throw line to claw back as it went 4-for-4 over the next two minutes to fuel a 7-0 run and tie the game at 38-38.
The game remained tied at 45-45 with 3:12 left in the third before the Aggies closed the stanza with a 12-1 run to take a nine-point lead into the fourth quarter. DelVal was 5-for-6 from the field and made another 4-of-6 from the charity stripe in that spurt. Four different players scored including Neuber who had six points in that stretch and 10 in the quarter. Wright, the fellow rookie forward, had 12 in the third quarter.
The Aggies used an 8-4 run that spanned four minutes of the fourth quarter to take their largest lead of the game at 65-53 with 3:21 left in regulation. With just 1:37 to play, a Wright layup made it a 69-58 lead, but the Cougars refused to go away. They quickly went on a 9-0 run that took just 36 seconds of game time as they forced two turnovers and went 4-for-4 from the line to make it a two-point game, 69-67, with 34 seconds to play.
The Aggies led by three with 12 seconds remaining and Keenan at the free-throw line. She made 1-of-2, but an offensive rebound and put-back by Wright gave DelVal the 74-68 lead and sealed the road conference triumph.
Wright reached career-highs in points and rebounds as she led all players with 26 points and 14 boards to go with three assists. It is the second double-double of the season for the rookie. Keenan and Neuber each shot 50-percent from the field and finished with 17 points. It was a season-high for Neuber who added four rebounds and three assists. Keenan added a season-best 11 rebounds for her second double-double of the year. Another first-year, Sophie Chevres matched a career-high with seven assists in the game to go with four points and four rebounds.
Bondi finished the game with five 3-pointers made and led Misericordia with 21 points. Gianna DelFino led the team with nine rebounds to with nine points, four blocked shots and three steals while Dowling was a perfect 4-for-4 from deep and had 19 points.
As a team, the Aggies shot 26-for-59 (44.1%) from the field, 4-for-9 (44.4%) from beyond the arc, and 18-for-26 (69.2%) from the charity stripe while winning the rebound battle, 45-34.
The defense held the Cougars to 36.5-percent (23-of-63) shooting from the field including 10-of-24 from deep (41.7%).
DelVal will return home on Wednesday for an 8 p.m. match-up against nationally-ranked conference foe DeSales University.
