Box Score

ANNVILLE, Pa. - Lebanon Valley did its part. Thankfully, so did Widener.

LVC came back in the final minute to beat Albright, 56-51, in its Commonwealth Conference semifinal and Widener stunned #13 Messiah, 60-57, to set up an LVC-Widener championship game in Annville on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Lori Lidlow took the lead for the Dutchmen (17-8) by converting a three-point play with 51 seconds left, and Andrea Hoover picked off Charlotte Ciccone with 25 seconds left to go to the line and cap off a grind-out game that saw neither team lead by more than three over the final five minutes.

Albright blew five-point leads at the end of both halves. LVC managed to hold Albright scoreless for the final 2:05 of the game, and the Dutchmen made five foul shots in the last minute to secure victory.

And as the celebration commenced at The Gym, the team anxiously awaited the result of a tight game in Grantham that ended as Katie Kalb missed a game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer.

Suzie Noyes led LVC with 16 points, and Caitlin Murphy and Eryn Schultz each added 11. With a three-pointer late in the first half, Schultz became LVC's single-season leader in three-pointers as she drained her 62nd of the year.

Bre Dillon turned in a remarkable second half for Albright, rebounding from foul trouble in a scoreless first half to score all of her 16 points after the break.

Lebanon Valley will play in just their third CC championship game and first at home since 2001-02, when they lost to Messiah. The second-seeded Dutchmen have never advanced to the NCAA tournament; Widener also upset Messiah in 2004 in the semis and went onto to win their only CC championship and second NCAA berth.

The Dutchmen ended the first half on a 14-4 surge to take a 56-51 lead, and Albright came back to tie the game before a 7-0 run put LVC up 34-27 five minutes into the second half.

But as suddenly as the points poured in for LVC, the faucet went dry, and Dillon canned  four straight field goals for Albright to tie the game back at 38-38.

From there, it was a dog fight, with Albright's largest lead of five points coming after a three-point play and two more foul shots from Dillon with 5:01 to go. LVC quickly erased that advantage on four points from Noyes and a layup by Murphy, but MariLynn McMonagle made a pair of freebies with 2:49 left to re-take a one-point lead.

After the sides traded points, Dillon gave up the ball and Lidlow raced to the other end, missing her first layup bid but grabbing her own board for the putback and the lead.

Hoover then came up with a huge steal, and Schultz went to the line to put LVC up four and all but ice the game.