Box Score
GRANTHAM, Pa. - Lebanon Valley pushed #5 Messiah to the brink but ultimately fell in the Commonwealth Conference women's basketball title game, 54-47, at Brubaker Auditorium Saturday.
Messiah (23-2) captured its fourth straight conference title, and will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament. The Dutchmen (22-5) will now hope for an at-large bid to the tournament; the bracket will be announced at 9 a.m. Monday morning on d3hoops.com.
Nikki Lobach scored 32 points for Messiah to earn tournament MVP honors. Suzie Noyes carried LVC with 20 points and eight rebounds, and Lori Lidlow added 12 points.
Lebanon Valley stayed in the game thanks to outstanding foul shooting; the Dutchmen were 18-of-20 from the line, including Noyes' 10-for-10 performance.
"I could not be more proud of the 12 women on my team," said Head Coach Todd Goclowski. "I know this group. There was no quit, no give-up in them."
Messiah came out with some tough defense and rushed out to a 17-2 lead as LVC failed to score over a 9:32 span.
But once Lidlow hit a coast-to-coast layup to break the funk, LVC turned on the afterburners and reeled off an 8-0 run to make it a 21-18 game. Nikki Lobach responded with a deuce to make it 23-18, but Lidlow ended the half with a fastbreak layup to make it a 23-20 score at the half.
"We needed some early offense to relax," Goclowski said. "Baskets were tough to come by early. I thought the team responded really well with that run."
The two sides traded buckets to start the second half, but a spurt by LVC, capped by a putback and two foul shots from Hoover, tied the game at 27 with 16:13 left. Noyes gave LVC their first lead of the game seconds later with her two free throws.
The Falcons came back with an 8-0 run to take control of the game midway through the half.
But the Dutchmen again clawed back as Noyes made two pairs of free throws to cut the Messiah lead to 35-33 with 10 minutes left. After Nikki Lobach made two foul shots of her own, Noyes took advantage of a Hoover pick at mid-court to put LVC down 37-35 with 8:56 remaining.
Both defenses took control of the game, and LVC regained the lead on Noyes' free throws before a three-pointer and an acrobatic layup by Nikki Lobach gave Messiah a 42-38 advantage.
The next few minutes were back-and-forth until Noyes drained a huge three-pointer to pull LVC within two with 3:31 to go. Messiah came back with consecutive short jumpers by Lobach and Lauren Schurr to go back up by six.
Lobach went to the line and made both with 1:22 left, but Hoover's trey cut it to 52-47 seconds later. Amy Reed came back with a 14-footer, however, to put Messiah up seven just under a minute to go, and neither side was able to score again.
