Box Score

ANNVILLE, Pa. - Andrea Hoover's double-double and Suzie Noyes's 22 points lifted #19 Lebanon Valley to its third consecutive Commonwealth Conference championship game, pulling away late to take a tough semifinal over Alvernia 87-77.

The Dutchmen (23-3) will try to win their first-ever conference championship when they host #20 Messiah, an 85-70 winner over Widener, in the title game on Saturday at 1 p.m. The winner will receive an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

Hoover was four rebounds shy of a triple-double as she had 17 points, 10 assists, and six boards for her first career two-fer, and Noyes drilled 22 points, including 14-of-17 foul shooting, to lead all scorers. Caitlin Murphy added 13 and Eryn Schultz 11 points.

Kelli McIntyre had 19 for Alvernia and Angela Altemose had a 12-point, 13-board double-double.

It will be the second straight year the CC title goes through Annville after Widener outlasted LVC in two overtimes last year. LVC and Messiah have met twice before for the title, in 2001-02 and 2007-08, with the Falcons winning both. The Dutchmen swept the season series from Messiah this year.

The game was a back-and-forth shootout as both teams had their stroke; LVC, with a season-high 87 points, shot 51 percent (29-of-57) to Alvernia's 48 percent (29-of-61), and both teams hovered near the 60 percent mark for much of the game.

The lead changed hands 12 times with eight ties, as every run by either team was answered right back for the first 30 minutes.

LVC led much of the first half and went up as much as eight to start the second, but Alvernia used a 9-2 run early in the half to take the lead, and it was a dogfight from there with neither team going up more than five over the middle of the second.

The dagger for Lebanon Valley came with 2:39 left after back-to-back LVC buckets established a five-point lead. With Alvernia threatening, Noyes chucked up a desperation three-pointer to beat the shot clock, but was fouled in the process and made all three tries to turn it into a 78-70 lead for the Dutchmen.

LVC didn't make another bucket, but they didn't need to as they shot 9-for-10 from the stripe for the balance and held Alvernia without a bucket until Joanna Graber's layup with 29 seconds to go with LVC already up 13.