PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia University women's basketball team secured a home game for the opening round of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Tournament after defeating the University of the Sciences 65-60 in a CACC contest Monday night in the Gallagher Center.

With the victory, Philadelphia, who led from wire-to-wire, improves to 20-6 overall and 14-4 in the CACC. The Rams have recorded back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons.

USciences, who dropped its third straight game, is now 18-7 overall, 14-4 in conference play.

Philadelphia can outright win the CACC southern division title with a victory against Goldey-Beacom in the regular season finale and a USciences loss at Georgian Court. Both games take place on Tuesday, Feb. 24 at 6 p.m.

Senior guard Najah Jacobs (Philadelphia, Pa./Central) was the Rams' leading scorer with 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting. Junior forward Alex Heck (Willow Grove, Pa./Archbishop Wood) added 14 points, seven rebounds, two assists, two blocks, and one steal.

Junior forward Tori Arnao (Newtown, Pa./Archbishop Wood) had a team-best eight rebounds.

Philadelphia scored on its first two possessions, a Jacobs jumper and a 3-pointer from junior guard Bria Young (Philadelphia, Pa./Prep Charter), and never looked back. The game remained tight until a run of eight straight Ram points allowed Philadelphia to open up a 31-18 lead on two Arnao free throws with 1:41 left in the first half.

Heck hit a layup with 17:37 to play to give Philadelphia a game-high 16-point lead (40-24). The Devils managed to make it a game with a 23-10 run, including 15 points from Brianne Traub, to cut the Ram advantage to 50-47 with 7:05 left.

Heck and junior forward Mary Newell (Lansdale, Pa./Villa Joseph Marie) stopped the rally, scoring four points each during an 8-0 surge to put the lead back in double figures at 58-47.

USciences got as close as 65-60 with 13 seconds left.

Traub led the Devils with 28 points and six rebounds. Isabella Ross contributed a game-high 14 rebounds.

Philadelphia shot 41.8 percent (23-of-55) overall, while USciences hit 37.7 percent (23-of-61) of its attempts.