Moravian Tops Women's Basketball in Commonwealth Semifinals, 53-51

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lebanon Valley held Moravian to just 30.8% shooting but the No. 2-seeded Greyhounds came away with a 53-51 win over No. 3 LVC Wednesday evening in the semifinals of the MAC Commonwealth Conference women's basketball playoffs.

Moravian (20-6) will now face top-seeded Messiah College in the Commonwealth championship game. Messiah defeated No. 4 Widener University 62-54 in the other semifinal Wednesday evening.

Lebanon Valley (19-6), which lost for the third game in a row after winning eight straight, will now hope for a bid in the ECAC tournament.

Tara Wozniak led Moravian with a game-high 13 points while Lebanon Valley received 12 points from sophomore center Jennifer Northcott (Horsham, Pa./Hatboro-Horsham) and 11 from senior forward Stephanie Tighe (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley).

Lebanon Valley shot 40.4% from the field but committed 24 turnovers. LVC made just three points on six trips to the foul line while Moravian was 16-for-21 at the charity stripe.

Neither team led by more than seven points throughout the contest. After trailing 24-20 with 4:32 left in the first half, Lebanon Valley outscored Moravian 8-2 to end the period and took a 28-26 lead into the locker room.

An extremely close second half, in which neither team led by more than five, featured five ties and four lead changes. LVC led 47-45 after a Northcott lay-up with 5:34 to go, but Moravian took the lead for good on a Tracie Shipman bucket with 4:22 left. A lay-up from Tighe cut the deficit to one (52-51) with 34 seconds remaining but LVC would fail to score the rest of the way. Moravian held on for the win despite missing three of its last four foul shots.

Moravian enjoyed its biggest lead of the game with 12:02 remaining in the first half when a Kristen Sarnocinski three-pointer but the Greyhounds ahead 15-8. But an 8-2 LVC spurt, capped by a three-pointer by senior guard Andrea Zawalick (Coal Township, Pa./Shamokin) pulled LVC to within one (17-16) with 8:53 left in the opening stanza.

Tighe and Northcott pulled down a game-high seven rebounds apiece while Northcott had a game-high five blocked shots.

[Photo - Sophomore center Jennifer Northcott, who had 12 points, seven rebounds and five blocked shots against Moravian]

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