Women's Basketball
#24 Lebanon Valley 67, Elizabethtown 61

Box Score

ANNVILLE, Pa. - Behind 15 points each from Andrea Hoover and Tierney Hiltz, and Renee Fritz's first career double-double, #24 Lebanon Valley rallied from a halftime deficit to beat Elizabethtown, 67-61, in the Commonwealth Conference opener on Wednesday night.

The Dutchmen (6-1, 1-0 CC) picked up a key early win as they wore down the Blue Jays (3-2, 0-1 CC) with a deep bench rotation that yielded nine points by Caitlin Murphy and seven from Lauren Ruhl.

LVC came up with 11 steals on 22 E-town turnovers, including four by Murphy. Fritz had 10 points and 11 rebounds to pace LVC's 46-33 advantage on the glass.

Hiltz drilled three three-pointers on her way to 15, and Hoover had a balanced 15 points/8 rebounds/5 assists to lead the offense. Stephanie Ellwood and Kendra Beittel led E-town with 11 points each.

The Blue Jays bombed 12 three-pointers in the game, eight of them in the first half as they darted out to a 38-33 halftime lead. However, foul trouble on point guard Nadine Yunginger and cold shooting doomed them in the second half as LVC pulled back to tie the game with a 6-0 run early in the half.

The lead went back and forth, but neither team led by more than a basket until Suzie Noyes made a pair of foul shots at the 7:46 mark to put LVC up four, and more free throws by Noyes, Hoover, and Nies extended the lead to eight points as the Blue Jays fell into a 4:12 scoring drought midway through the half.

E-town never recovered from that, and a Fritz layup with 3:52 combined with free throws by Hoover and Murphy sealed up the important early conference win.

LVC overcame 35% shooting for the night, while E-town finished at 38.3% after drilling 10 of 22 in the first half.

LVC will try to go 2-0 in league play when they visit Alvernia on Saturday.