Box Score BOX SCORE
Center Valley, Pa. (January 9, 2008) – The DeSales University women's basketball team used a big second-half rally to win its Freedom Conference season opener, 70-59, over Delaware Valley College on Wednesday evening as junior LeighAnn Burke (Philadelphia, PA/Archbishop Ryan) became the 17th player in women's basketball history to reach the 1,000-point plateau in the win.
The Bulldogs (11-2, 1-0 Freedom) felt victim to some hot shooting by Delaware Valley College (4-8, 0-1 Freedom) in the opening half as the Aggies torched the nets, converting 54.8 percent and 42.9 percent (6-of-14) from three-point land en route to a 42-32 halftime lead. DVC never trailed and led by as many as 10 points on three different occasions. Sophomore Kim Vennera led the charge with 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc.
The second half started in grand fashion as Burke nailed a triple on the first possession, the 1,000th point of her career, to pull DeSales within seven at 42-35 and the Bulldog defense took over from that point. DSU buckled down and held the Aggies to just 17.2 percent shooting in the second-half.
After chipping away at the lead over the first 10 minutes the Bulldogs went on a 12-0 run over a span of 6:17 in which they held the Aggies to 0-for-11 from the field opening up a 61-51 lead with 4:09 to play. Sophomore Kaila Wiand (Royersford, PA/Spring-Ford) keyed the run scoring six of the 12 points for the Bulldogs. Vennera pulled DVC within seven points at the 2:49 mark but a lay-up from Burke and a jumper from sophomore Caitlin Miller (Fogelsville, PA/Northwestern Lehigh) pushed the lead to 11 with 1:49 to go to end any threat.
A balanced attack was led by Burke and Wiand with 13 points each. Wiand also collected a team-high seven rebounds and dished out three assists. Miller finished with 12 points and seven boards, while junior Kim Rarick (Ringtown, PA/North Schuylkill) also reached double digits with 11 points. Junior Erica Sovak (Tuxedo, NY/George F. Baker) gave DeSales a lift off the bench with seven points, all in the first half.
Vennera finished with 24 points, eight rebounds and five steals to lead Delaware Valley. Freshman Brittany Battinieri had 14 points, 11 in the first half and senior Moria Donohue finished with eight points, five rebounds and five assists and five steals in the loss.
The Bulldogs return to action on Saturday, January 12th when they travel to FDU-Florham for another Freedom Conference game beginning at 1:00 pm. For those unable to attend you can follow the game online via LIVE stats at the following link – http://fdudevils.com/wbasketball/ and clicking on the LIVE stats link.
