Burke Drops School-Record 46 Points as Bulldogs top Aggies, 86-70

Senior LeighAnn Burke scored a school-record 46 points and hit another school-record 10 three's in the win on Tuesday night.

Box Score

BOX SCORE

Center Valley, PA (February 17, 2009) – Senior LeighAnn Burke (Philadelphia, PA/Archbishop Ryan) was in a zone and there wasn't anyone in Billera Hall that could do anything about it as she scored a school-record 46 points on the strength of another school-record 10 three-pointers leading 24^th ranked DeSales University past Delaware Valley College, 86-70, in a Freedom Conference game on Tuesday evening.

If you decided to stay home and not come to the game tonight, you will regret it after reading about this performance. Burke was simply on fire and was not going to be stopped.

She opened the game scoring eight of the Bulldogs first nine points to give DSU a 9-7 lead. After a Burke triple at the 14:47 mark pushed DeSales (20-4, 14-1 Freedom) ahead, 17-9, she had scored 11 points over the first 5:13 of the game. The rest of the half she was relatively quiet scoring just three points as the Bulldogs used a 10-4 run over the final six minutes to build a 13-point halftime edge, 41-28. Burke had just 14 points at the break on 5-of-14 shooting.

The second half was magical.

The game went back-and-forth over the first seven minutes as a Burke triple put DSU ahead by 10 points, 54-44, with 13:16 remaining. The Aggies answered that Burke three with an 8-0 run getting within two points, 54-52, at the 11:43 mark. A free throw from junior Kelly Magrann (Sinking Spring, PA/Holy Name) ended the DVC run and Burke went to work.

She scored 11 of the next 13 DeSales points to push the lead back to 10 points (68-58) and a jumper from freshman Megan Bedard (Limerick, PA/Spring-Ford) capped off a 16-6 run with the score reading 70-58 Bulldogs with 6:18 to go.

On DSU's next possession, Burke hit her ninth trey of the game giving her a school-record 39 points and added her 10^th three-pointer at the 2:50 mark extending DSU's lead to 14 points, 82-68, icing the game.

Burke finished with 46 points, 34 of which came in the second-half, to break the school-record which previously sat at 37 points. Her 46 points are the third most by a Division III player this season, while her 10 three-pointers is tied for seventh on the NCAA's all-time list for most treys in a game. She also had time to grab a career-high nine rebounds and dished out five assists. Burke finished 15-for-30 from the field and an incredible 10-for-15 from downtown.

Lost in her performance were some other solid contributions including junior Caitlin Miller (Fogelsville, PA/Northwestern Lehigh) who had nine points and 12 boards and Bedard who tallied a season-high 13 points off the bench. Freshman Cherelle Simmons (Lancaster, PA/JP McCaskey) added six points and 11 rebounds also off the bench.

Three players reached double figures in the loss for the Aggies (11-13, 5-10 Freedom) including junior Kim Vennera with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Mandi Wilson had 14 points and Brittany Zimmerman played well with 15 points and eight assists.

DSU returns to action on Saturday, February 21^st when they travel to Alvernia University for the Freedom Conference regular season finale beginning at 1:00 pm.

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