Visiting Stevens Institute of Technology extended its current winning streak to nine games, as the St. John Fisher College women's basketball program suffered its second straight loss, losing 70-61 to the Ducks on Friday night in an Empire 8 Conference matchup.
 
With the win, Stevens improves to 9-1 overall and 4-0 in the Empire 8, while Fisher falls to 9-4, 2-2.
 
It was a back-and-forth first half that featured eight ties and seven lead-changes.   The Ducks took their biggest lead of the opening period at 33-29 late in the first half before Claire Walsh hit Fisher's lone 3-pointer of the opening period, making it 33-32 at the break.
 
With 12:22 left, Fisher's Emily Piacentini converted on 1-of-2 free throws, tying the game at 47s, but the Cardinals went cold after that, as the Ducks went on a 14-0 run over the next eight minutes to take the lead for good.
 
Fisher used a 7-0 spurt late in the game to pull within eight 67-59 with 1:26 left, but couldn't get any closer.
 
Mary Kate Cusack led the Cardinals with 20 points and a career-high nine steals.  Senior Portia Velasco added 13 points, while classmate Sydney Bloomstein tallied a team-high eight rebounds to go with seven points.

Freshman Lunden Cunningham finished with seven points and six rebounds.
 
As a team, Fisher shot just 29.6% from the floor, including 4-of-27 (14.8%) from 3-point range, while the Ducks were 25-of-53 (47.2%) from the field, including 6-for-11 (54.5%) from beyond the arc.
 
Fisher returns to action at 2 p.m. on Saturday and will host Hartwick College.   The Hawks dropped a 69-58 decision at Nazareth College on Friday.