Box Score Women's Basketball
Hood College 60, Lebanon Valley College 58 (OT)

ANNVILLE, Pa. – Despite an excellent shooting performance from sophomore Bridget Rothert, the Lebanon Valley women's basketball team couldn't put the ball in the basket and Hood pulled the upset on Wednesday evening inside LVC Gymnasium, 60-58, in overtime.

Rothert was 4-for-7 from distance in the opening half and went 5-for-10 from three-point range for the game, leading the Dutchmen with 17 points, tying her highest-scoring game in the blue and white. Unfortunately, no other Valley player had more than one field goal in the first half or more than two field goals for the game.

There seemed to be a lid on the basket in the LVC offensive end as they shot just 15-for-62 from the field (24.2%), compared to Hood's 23-for-49 (46.9%). The Blazers lit it up from outside the arc as they drained eight of their 15 attempts, a 53.3% clip. Verkia Smith was the game's high scorer with 23 points and five three-pointers.

LVC's free-throw shooting kept them in the game as they were able to knock down 21-of-26 from the line (80.8%) in the contest. Another bright spot for the Valley was on the glass, holding a 42-32 advantage in rebounding.

The Blazers came out of the gate ready to play as they quickly jumped out to a 12-1 lead in the opening seven minutes, before a layup from sophomore Alyssa Cirucci at 11:48 in the opening half finally gave the Valley its first field goal of the contest.

Three shots from beyond the arc by Rothert, coupled with a layup from freshman Lexie Lantz cut the Hood lead to six at 25-19 with 4:11 to go in the half and a three-pointer with three seconds left in the half from senior Lauren Ruhl gave LVC momentum going into the break down just one, 27-26.

The Dutchmen carried that momentum into the first few minutes of the second stanza as yet another three from Rothert at the 16:50 mark finally knotted the game at 29-29. However, a three on the other end by Hood's Danni Medovich put the Blazers in front again, a lead they would not relinquish until the 3:16 mark in the game.

Down the stretch, a layup from senior Caitlin Bach out of a timeout with 24 seconds left tied the game at 52 apiece. In the final possession of regulation, solid defense by the Valley forced a wild shot at the buzzer and the game moved to an extra session.

The overtime was all Hood in the first two minutes, scoring the first four points for a 56-52 lead with 3:08 to play. Layups from both sides and a Hood free throw gave the Blazers a 59-55 advantage with 57 seconds left, but a beautifully-drawn play set up a wide-open trey from sophomore Peyton Carper in the corner that cut the lead to just one with 41 seconds left at 59-58.

A pair of turnovers in the final two Dutchmen possessions sealed their fate, though, as Hood hit a free throw in the waning moments to push the final score to 60-58.

With the loss, the Valley drops to 13-3 on the year and 7-2 in Commonwealth Conference play. Hood earns just its second conference win moving to 5-11 overall and 2-7 in conference action.

Next up for LVC is a trip to Alvernia on Saturday at 1 p.m.