History has been made! For the first time in Stevens history, the men’s basketball team has won the conference championship. This gave them the MAC Freedom Championship title and a pass into the NCAA Division III Tournament. The Ducks had to pass through both FDU-Florham and Eastern University to claim the title, but the Ducks persevered.
To begin their conference run, the Ducks faced the FDU-Florham Devils on Wednesday, February 26, at the Canavan Arena. Stevens has faced FDU-Florham many times prior. Even though Stevens has won the majority of their matchups against FDU-Florham, the Ducks knew that they still had to bring their best if they wanted a chance to move on to the finals.
The Ducks came running out of the gate with a layup by junior Alec DiPietrantonio to put the Ducks on the scoreboard first. After that, the Ducks and Devils traded baskets for the remainder of the first half. The first half was pretty competitive, with the Devils and Ducks trading leads quite often. At the end of the first half, the Ducks were only ahead by three points (31-28), so the Ducks knew that they could not let their energy die down in the second half.
The start of the second half was very similar to the first half, with the Devils maintaining a growing lead over the Ducks during the first 10 minutes. However, this lead was soon squashed. The Ducks’ defense, one of the best in the country, proved to be too strong of an opponent for the Devils. For the remaining 10 minutes of the last half, the Ducks never lost their lead over the Devils. DiPietrantonio scored a game-high of 17 points and a season record of 16 rebounds, leading the Ducks to a 72-53 victory.
With their victory over FDU-Florham, Stevens’ next opponent was Eastern University for the conference title. Eastern was not as familiar of an opponent as FDU-Florham, and having only played them twice before (and winning once), the Ducks could not rely on their past performances to guide them; it would take pure talent and energy to get past Eastern.
Eastern was up on the board first, with a layup to give them a 2-0 lead over Stevens. Stevens responded with a three-pointer by senior Spencer Cook. For the rest of the first half, the Ducks never gave the lead to Eastern. Stevens’ defense proved to be very strong once again, responding to everything that Eastern threw at them. Even going into the second half, the Ducks did not lose the lead. The Eastern Eagles had some good runs in the second half, but the Ducks’ offense was able to push out ahead.
Cook finished this game with a total of 32 points. With the Ducks’ win over Eastern University, they were guaranteed a spot in the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament, which takes place on Friday, March 6, at 6:30 p.m. against Nichols College at Canavan Arena. This is one that you do not want to miss.
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