Box Score
ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. – Junior center Jennifer Northcott (Horsham, Pa./Hatboro-Horsham) scored 13 points and pulled down a game-high nine rebounds, leading No. 21 Lebanon Valley to a 64-53 victory over host Elizabethtown College on Saturday afternoon at Thompson Gymnasium.
Lebanon Valley (14-1, 5-1 CC) won for the ninth game in a row, giving the team its longest winning streak since its school-record 17-game streak in the 2001-02 season. The Flying Dutchmen have not lost since Dec. 6 and are 8-0 in the month of January.
The Blue Jays (9-6, 3-3 CC), who lost their third straight game after winning nine in a row, were paced by Cristin Braun, who tossed in a team-high 13 points.
LVC guard Erin Eaby (Ephrata, Pa./Ephrata) was the only other player for either team to reach double figures in scoring, as she totaled 10 points to go with a game-high five assists. Junior guard Crystal Gibson (Randallstown, Md./Randallstown) and junior forward Tamika Rogers (Baltimore, Md./Milford Academy) added seven points and eight rebounds apiece.
Lebanon Valley held E-town to 28.8% shooting, including 27.8% (5-for-18) from beyond the arc.
The Dutchmen held a slim 30-27 halftime advantage, then pulled away by outscoring the Blue Jays 34-26 in the second half.
E-town's Jessica Hollinshead, who was averaging a Commonwealth Conference-leading 16.9 points per game entering the contest, was limited to seven points on 2-of-11 shooting.
Lebanon Valley trailed by six (21-15) midway through the first half before outscoring E-town 14-2 over the next 6:16 to take a 29-22 lead with 2:51 left in the stanza. A layup by Gibson with 4:57 to go put the Valley up 23-22 and gave the Dutchmen the lead for good.
The Valley gave itself some breathing room after a 12-3 run over a 2:59 span early in the second half turned a 34-31 lead into a 46-34 cushion with 13:16 left in the game. LVC led by as much as 15 (57-42) with 7:01 to go, but the Blue Jays fought their way back into it with an 11-3 run, cutting the gap to 59-53 with 3:27 remaining. However, E-town missed its last five shots and LVC scored the game's final five points to hold on for the victory.
LVC shot 56.5% from the field in the second half and finished with a 48.1% mark for the game.
Lebanon Valley returns to the court on Monday, when it visits No. 11 Johns Hopkins University at 7 p.m. in a non-conference affair.
[Photo - Junior center Jennifer Northcott, who posted 13 points and nine rebounds in Lebanon Valley's 64-53 win at Elizabethtown on Saturday]
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