Box Score
ANNVILLE, Pa. – Senior forward Chelsea Luhta scored a game-high 30 points, including her team’s final seven, and Widener University held off a furious Lebanon Valley comeback as the Pioneers recorded a 77-70 win in a Commonwealth Conference women’s basketball game Tuesday evening at the LVC Gymnasium.
Widener (13-7, 6-3 CC) led by as much as 17 in the first half, but Lebanon Valley (5-13, 1-8 CC) whittled the deficit all the way down to two on three occasions late in the game. It was 72-70 with 55 seconds left after junior forward Monica Johnson converted a lay-up, but Luhta drove down the lane for a lay-up of her own to push Widener’s lead to four with 41 seconds remaining.
Sophomore center Janae Ostrowksi came up with a blocked shot for the Pioneers with 32 ticks showing, forcing Lebanon Valley to foul. After Luhta made 1 of 2 free throws five seconds later, LVC missed a three-pointer, and the ball caromed out of bounds with Widener regaining possession. Luhta was fouled again with seven seconds left, and this time she hit both foul shots to set the final score.
Johnson finished with 18 points and a game-high 12 rebounds for her 14th double-double of the season while freshman guard Amie Bickert scored a season-high 18 points and shot 4-for-8 from three-point range for Lebanon Valley. Bickert, who also handed out a season-high nine assists, helped LVC tie a school record for three-pointers made (nine) and establish a new LVC record for three-pointers attempted (29).
Junior guard Allie Butler added 11 points, eight rebounds, and five assists while freshman forward Megan Bish notched 11 points and seven rebounds.
Ostowski posted 17 points on 8-for-14 shooting while pulling down nine rebounds and blocking four shots. Sophomore forward Dominque Kidd added nine rebounds for the Pioneers while senior guard Linette Babiarz handed out eight assists.
Widener trailed just once on the evening – when it was 4-2 just over a minute into the game following a Butler lay-up. The Pioneers came back to score the next 11 points to forge a 13-4 lead with 15:26 left in the opening half. Lebanon Valley trailed by eight (29-21) with 5:43 remaining in the stanza after a Butler trey, but that’s when Widener went on an 11-2 run to open up a 40-23 lead with 1:33 left in the half. The Pioneers led 40-27 at the half.
Widener pushed its lead to 16 on two occasions in the second half, the last coming on a jumper from freshman guard Beth Dessart Mager with 16:58 remaining, making it 49-33. But the Pioneers missed their next seven shots over a 4:43 stretch during which LVC held them to a pair of Luhta free throws. In the meantime, Lebanon Valley was putting together a 10-2 run that made reduced the deficit to single digits (51-43) following a Johnson bucket with 11:57 to go.
A jumper from sophomore forward Cassandra Martinez cut the gap to five (53-48) with 10:22 left, and a Johnson lay-up made it 55-50 with 9:34 on the clock. But an 8-2 Pioneer surge, with Luhta scoring six along the way, pushed the visitors’ lead back into double digits (63-52) with 6:50 left.
Widener led by nine (68-59) with 4:08 to go after a Luhta lay-up, but Lebanon Valley refused to go away. LVC scored the next seven points, and Bickert pulled her team to within two when she canned a fast-break jumper with 3:03 to go. Johnson made it a two-point game again (70-68) with 1:44 left, and Lebanon Valley nearly forced Widener into a shot-clock violation on its ensuing possession. But Luhta was fouled just before the shot-clock buzzer, and she nailed a pair of foul shots before Johnson hit her lay-up to make it a two-point game for the final time.
Martinez added a career-high eight points on 4-of-6 shooting in 14 minutes off the bench while sophomore guard Donna Geiger distributed five assists.
Lebanon Valley continues its season on Thursday, when it visits Dickinson College at 7 p.m. in a non-conference game.
[Photo - Freshman guard Amie Bickert]
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