Devils Open Conference Play with Win Over Felician

Leah Shumoski recorded her third consecutive double-double as the USP women's basketball team opened up conference play with a 77-58 win over Felician College.

Shumoski (Jr., Marple-Newtown HS/Broomall, PA) scored 24 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to lead the Devils. In addition, Leah added seven steals and two assists. Shelby Rance (So., Central Columbia HS/ Bloomsburg, PA) joined Shumoski as the only other Devil in double figures with 11 points while Rashanna Edwards (So., West Windsor-Plainsboro HS/Plainsboro, NJ) added nine points and four steals.off the bench and Lori Wernik (So., Lower Cape May Regional HS/Cape May, NJ) turned in another solid effort with nine rebounds and three steals.

USP had a shaky start to the first period, jumping out to an early lead only to have Felician rebound back and tie the game at 18-18 at the 10:22 mark. The Devils then used runs of 7-2 and 10-3 to pull ahead by eight points 37-29 with 2:29 to go. The Devils went up by their biggest margin of the half, nine point as the period wound down, 43-34.

In the second half, USP still led by nine 48-39 when they went on a 10-0 run to put the game out of reach 59-39 with 12:24 to go. Shumoski had five of the Devils 10 points in the run while Edwards added three. Whitney Smith (Fr., Coral Springs HS/Coral Springs, FL) scored the other two for the Devils. After increasing their lead to 21 points Felician scored five straight to cut the lead to 16 62-46 with 8:55 to go. USP countered with an 8-2 run over the next 3:52 to lead 70-48 with 5:03 remaining. Continuing their solid play the Devils took their biggest lead of the night 24, 75-51 on a Lauren Kressaty ( Fr., Wayne Valley HS/Wayne, NJ) free throw with 3:40 left. Felician closed out the game with a 7-2 run to make the final score 77-58.

After shooting 50% from the field in the first hal, the Devils connected on only nine of 27 shots in the second half, finishing the game shooting 41.8% (23-55). USP was 29-37 from the free throw line. and outrebounded the Golden Falcons 45-26.

USP is now 2-2 overall and 1-0 in conference play. Next up for the Devils is a conference game at Post University in Waterbury, Connecticut on Saturday December 4, 2004.