Hot Start For USciences Women's Hoops
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Division II University of the Sciences women's basketball team is off and running this season.
The Devils have started the campaign 6-0. Their most recent win came in their Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference opener against Goldey-Beacom on Tuesday night, 53-41. Four of the other wins for the Devils have come against teams from the powerful Northeast-10 Conference.
"It's definitely been a good test for our team to kind of see where we're at," Sciences head coach Jackie Hartzell tells KYW Newsradio. "Obviously, winning all six games, we're pretty happy with where we are. But we recognize we still have a long way to go, but definitely off to a good start."
This start comes a season after the Devils went 11-18 and Hartzell says everyone is chipping in.
"It's a bunch of different people stepping up and it has been a different person every game for us," Hartzell says. "Big part of why we're playing well right now is the return of a couple players coming off of injury from last season and it's just been a different player each game. Our leadership has been great, our juniors have really been doing a great job of leading."
One of those juniors is guard Sarah Abbonizio, who leads the team in scoring at 15 points per game. Sophomore guard Alex Thomas is chipping in 10.5 points a game. The Devils play great defense, holding opponents to just 52 points per game this season.
Hartzell says her players has also impressed her this season with their mental toughness.
"Finding ways to win at the end and just grinding it out," she says. "We recognize that we could easily be 3-3 right now instead of 6-0. We had three games come down to either the last possession or the last minute. I think a little bit ends up being luck, but it's also the mental toughness and it's grinding the wins out. I think that's been a really good experience for us and hopefully will help us down the road in conference play."
The Devils return to action on Sunday, hosting Shippensburg.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @Mattleonkyw.
