Box Score

ANNVILLE, Pa. – Senior forward Stephanie Tighe (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) scored a game and season-high 30 points as the Lebanon Valley College women’s basketball team opened its 2002-03 Commonwealth Conference schedule with a 68-50 victory over Susquehanna University Tuesday evening in Lynch Gymnasium.

LVC, which earlier in the day received a No. 18 national ranking by D3hoops.com, improved to 5-0 on the season while the Crusaders dropped to 3-1 and 0-1 in conference play.

Tighe shot 9-of-20 from the field and 10-of-11 from the free throw line to up her career scoring total to 1,330 points. She is now just 37 points shy of passing Steph Smith ’87 as the progam’s all-time leading scorer.

Sophomore guard Crystal Gibson (Randallstown, Md./Randallstown) added 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting and a game-high six assists.

Senior forward Emily Kurtz led Susquehanna with 13 points while senior guard Alison Ream added 10 points. Sophomore center Skyra Blanchard pulled down a game and career-high 15 rebounds for the Crusaders.

For the second game in a row, the Valley tied a school record with 12 blocked shots. Sophomore center Jennifer Northcott (Horsham, Pa./Hatboro-Horsham) recorded a game and season-high four rejections while Tighe, Gibson, sophomore forward Tamika Rogers (Baltimore, Md./Milford Academy) and freshman forward Nicole Dixon (Randallstown, Md./Woodlawn) joined in the block party with two swats apiece.

Lebanon Valley overcame 33.8 percent shooting from the field by capitalizing on Susquehanna’s turnovers. LVC converted 27 Crusader miscues into 24 points.

Susquehanna also struggled with its shooting and made just 26.8 percent of its shots. At the foul line, the Crusaders hit for only 47.1 percent (16-of-34), including 1-of-12 free-throw shooting in the first half.

LVC trailed by three (14-11) with 8:13 left in the first half before senior Christine Bigler (Columbia, Pa./Columbia Borough) sparked a decisive 10-0 run with eight of her 10 points over the next 2:49. Bigler knocked down a three-pointer with 7:00 showing on the clock to tie the game at 14, then hit a pair of free throws 35 seconds later to give the Valley a lead it would not relinquish. After a lay-up by Gibson, Bigler splashed in another three to put LVC on top 21-14 with 5:24 left in the half.

Lebanon Valley continued to roll for the remainder of the half and closed the period on a 24-5 run to take a 35-19 lead into the locker room.

LVC opened up a 20-point lead three times in the early going of the second half but Susquehanna whittled it down to 13 (51-38) after a 9-2 run with 9:14 remaining. However, the Valley answered back with a 10-1 surge to assume a 61-39 advantage with 5:14 to go and held on down the stretch.

Northcott added a team-high 12 rebounds for Lebanon Valley while Tighe recorded a game-high four steals.

Lebanon Valley takes a respite from its Commonwealth schedule when it visits Johns Hopkins University (Md.) in a 7 p.m. start Thursday evening.

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