Box Score

ANNVILLE, Pa. - The Lebanon Valley College women's basketball team held off a late charge by Widener University and earned its first Commonwealth Conference win of the season, 72-65, Wednesday night.

The Dutchmen (15-2, 1-2 CC) maintained the lead despite a late 9-0 run by the Pride (9-9, 1-2 CC).

LVC was led by freshman point guard Andrea Hoover, who scored 10 points and went 8-for-8 from the line - all in the second half - while dishing out seven assists. Freshman Lori Lidlow led LVC scorers with 13 points and four assists. Freshman Shelly Lobach pitched in with eight points and five steals off the bench.

Megan Sipple had an outstanding game for Widener with 21 points and seven steals.

A tight first half saw the two sides trade the lead, and Megan Bish's late three-pointer tied the game for the seventh time with 2:19 left as LVC ended the half on a 6-0 run to take the lead for good.

Widener, however, went ice-cold to start the second half as it failed to score until Beth Dessart Mager's jumper with 14:49 left in the game. In the meantime, the Dutchmen had taken full advantage with an 11-0 run and a 19-point lead.

The Pride kept it interesting, however, and despite LVC increasing the lead to as many as 21 points, Widener clawed back into the game. Solid foul shooting down the stretch chipped away as LVC's lead, and when Rayne Reber sank a pair with 4:15 to go, LVC's lead had dwindled to nine.

Consecutive buckets by Sipple and Mager cut the lead to five with 1:57 left, and Mager canned a three-pointer to put Widener within two with 46 seconds to go.

As Widener was forced to foul, LVC responded by going 8-of-8 from the line over the final 46 seconds, never letting Widener get a winning look.

LVC will continue conference play Saturday as it heads to Elizabethtown College for a 2 p.m. tip.