Box Score
READING, Pa. – Junior forward Monica Johnson scored a game-high 18 points, broke her school’s single-season scoring record, and ripped down a career-high 19 rebounds for her 17th double-double of the season to lead Lebanon Valley to a 49-45 win over Albright College in Commonwealth Conference women’s basketball action Tuesday evening at the Bollman Center.
Lebanon Valley (7-17, 2-11 CC) rallied from a 12-point deficit early in the second half to give 13th-year Head Coach Peg Kauffman her 190th career win in her next-to-last game at the Valley.
Albright (14-10, 5-8 CC) tied the game at 45-all after a pair of Marie Levins free throws with 1:12 left, that would prove to be the Lions’ final points of the game, as the hosts committed a turnover and shot 0-for-3 over their final four possessions.
Sophomore guard Donna Geiger scored what held up as the game-winning bucket when she dropped in a lay-up with 28 seconds remaining. Freshman forward Megan Bish rebounded an Albright miss with 12 seconds left, was fouled, and knocked down a pair of free throws to seal LVC’s win.
Johnson’s first points of the game, a jumper with 7:19 left in the first half, gave her the LVC record for points in a season, as she passed the previous standard of 459 set by Steph Tighe ’03 in the 2001-02 season. After a sluggish first half in which she shot 1-for-10 from the field, Johnson came back with a 16-point, 14-rebound performance in the final 20 minutes in which she shot 5-for-10.
Johnson, who also had three blocked shots, came up just three rebounds shy of the Lebanon Valley single-game record set by Penny Hamilton ’87 against, ironically, Albright.
Junior guard Allie Butler added 10 points for Lebanon Valley, which used only six players due to injuries to starting guard Amie Bickert and reserve forward Cassandra Martinez. Sophomore guard Jenna Gambino posted eight points, nine rebounds, and four steals while Bish totaled six points and 11 boards.
Meredith Berger led Albright with 16 points and 15 rebounds. Annie McMahon and Staci Waligorski added 11 points apiece.
The Lions led 21-20 at halftime but came out of halftime intermission on fire, outscoring LVC 13-2 over the opening 5:13 of the second period to assume a 34-22 lead, the largest advantage of the game for either team. But that’s when Lebanon Valley dug in defensively, holding Albright scoreless over the next 4:19 while running off 10 straight points to make it 34-32 with 10:28 left following a Gambino jumper.
Lebanon Valley came all the way back to tie the game and then take the lead (38-37) after a pair of Johnson foul shots with 6:03 to go. Johnson followed up with a conventional three-point play 12 seconds later to make it 41-37, but the Lions rallied with a 6-0 run to go ahead 43-41 with 2:42 left. But 11 seconds later, Butler canned her third and final trey of the night to put LVC in front to stay.
Albright was limited to four points and one field goal over the final 4:39.
Both teams struggled with their shooting, as Lebanon Valley went just 25.0% from the floor while the Lions connected on only 25.8% of their shots.
Lebanon Valley concludes its season on Saturday, when it visits Susquehanna University at 1 p.m. in a Commonwealth Conference game.
-lvc-
