Women's Basketball

Delaware Valley College 75, FDU-Florham 66


MADISON (NJ) - Shannon O'Neill scored 23 points as Delaware Valley College avenged a 28-point home loss to FDU-Florham just two weeks ago with a 75-66 victory over the Devils on Tuesday evening.

The win improved the Aggies to 8-10 overall and 4-5 in the Freedom Conference. They are a half game ahead of Drew, which hosts DeSales tomorrow evening, for the fourth and final playoff spot with five conference games remaining. FDU-Florham fell to 7-12 overall and 2-7 in the Freedom.

Exactly 14 days earlier, Delaware Valley fell behind 31-5 in the first 9:24 of the contest with FDU-Florham, en route to an 82-54 setback. This time around, the Devils did not put 31 points on the scoreboard until Courtney Young's layup with 13:27 remaining in the second half. That basket ended a 7-0 run and pulled FDU-Florham to within seven at 38-31.

However, the Aggies responded with a 19-5 run and their largest lead of the game at 57-36 with 7:22 to go. Moira Donohue had seven points in the run while Rachel Joyce added six. Delaware Valley managed just two baskets from the field the rest of the way, but it converted 14 of 18 free throws to hold off any thoughts of a Devil rally.

The Aggies led 28-20 at halftime as they held FDU-Florham to just 21.2 percent shooting from the field in the first 20 minutes. Both teams shot over 50 percent in the second half, including a 51.7 percent effort by Delaware Valley.

O'Neill hit four, 3-pointers and was perfect 9-for-9 from the foul line, en route to her big scoring night. Brooke Dittmar finished with 14 points and a game-high 13 rebounds while Donohue and Joyce chipped in with 12 and 10 points respectively.

Emily Cerankowski notched 23 points and nine rebounds to pace the Devils. Maureen Kehoe and Jessie Chalmers combined for 27 points and 14 boards in the loss.