Women’s and men’s basketball both get wins on opening night

On Tuesday night, both Stevens men’s and women’s basketball teams pulled off a win.

The women’s basketball team opened the 2019-20 campaign with a 60-49 victory over Western Connecticut State University inside Canavan Arena. The female Ducks were led by Allie Moss who tallied 16 points.

West Conn was able to force 34 turnovers. However, it was not enough, as Allie Moss was stellar from 3-point-range in the win for Stevens, going 3-for-5 (in total the team was 5 for 10) from downtown while also adding five boards and three assists.

Junior Christina Li and freshman Danielle Cornetta also finished in double figures as Li produced 14 points and Cornetta added 12 in her collegiate debut.

West Conn scored 7 of the final 9 points of the first half to take a 25-23 lead into halftime.

Despite that, Stevens came out of the gates firing on all cylinders from deep in the second half, nailing four consecutive 3-point buckets. Subsequently, the Ducks kept their lead and never surrendered it. This gave Stevens a beautiful opening win to tip off the season.

For the male Ducks, senior Spencer Cook scored a game-high 29 points to lead the Stevens men’s basketball team over New Jersey City University 81-75 in a non-conference matchup.

Cook shot 8 for 15 from the floor, including 5 of 10 from beyond the arc. Cook dominated the show and led Stevens to their first win of the season.

Graduate student Kevin Florio added 14 points, including four 3-pointers, and senior JoJo Mosca came off the bench to drain a pair of triples. Freshman Matt Crowley came off the bench to score 11 points to go along with five rebounds and five assists in his collegiate debut. Also, Crowley made two free throws in the final 15 seconds to secure the victory.

Stevens had an amazing start to the game and the Ducks’ lead went up to 14.

Despite the strong start to the game, Stevens’ lead was trimmed to four before Spencer Cook made sure to give the Ducks the momentum with a buzzer-beating three that sent the teams into halftime with the Ducks holding a 37-30 advantage.

Although NJCU would go on to tie the score early in the second half, the Ducks actually never trailed in the second half.

Another freshman, Brett Bischoping, finished with three points. Commenting on his first collegiate points, Bischoping stated, “It was a huge relief, it felt like I had finally arrived and was now a real college basketball player.” Bischoping also talked about how he felt his team won the game, “I think our outside shooting and great half court defense pushed us over the top.”

Both basketball teams played phenomenally and both teams will be looking forward to the exciting season ahead.