ANNVILLE, Pa. - Lebanon Valley closed out 2014 with a win, pulling away late to drop a scrappy Pitt-Bradford team 76-59 at Sorrentino Gymnasium on Tuesday night.

Peyton Carper led LVC with 18 points off the bench and Bridget Rothert poured in 16 with six rebounds, five assists, and four steals as the Dutchmen hit the New Year at 9-2 overall heading into Commonwealth Conference play.  The visitors' Alicia Kimmel led all scorers with 23.  

The Dutchmen recovered from an ice-cold first-half shooting performance (39 percent from the field) by outscoring the Panthers 46-27 in the second half to turn an early nailbiter into a victory going away.

Lebanon Valley scored the game's first six points and led 12-4 following a Carper layup at the 14:45 mark but the visitors used a 12-2 run to take their first lead of the night with 9:27 remaining in the first half.  The Dutchmen failed to score for a stretch of nearly four minutes late in the first half and Pitt-Bradford grabbed its largest advantage of the contest at 26-19 when Kimmel knocked down a jumper at the 3:48 mark.  LVC used an 11-6 run to end the half and cut the deficit to 32-30 at the break.

Trailing 38-32 with 17:28 left to play, the Dutchmen shot themselves out of their slump when Taylor Umbrell, Carper, and Alyssa Cirucci connected from beyond the arc early in the second half.  Leading 57-53 with 5:52 remaining, LVC used some timely defensive stops, a couple of layups from Carper and Umbrell, jumpers by Kaitlyn Van Tash and Lauren Derby, and free throws from Alex Lehman and Rothert to pull away in crunch time.

After a rough go of things from the field in the opening 20 minutes, Lebanon Valley responded by shooting 55.6 percent in the second half.  The Dutchmen netted four three-pointers after failing to strike from distance in the first half.  LVC outrebounded the Panthers 38-31 and got 28 points from the reserves compared to just six by Pitt-Bradford's bench.

Derby joined Carper and Rothert as double-digit scorers with ten points.  Umbrell had a good night defensively with three steals to go along with her nine points and six rebounds.  Cirucci dished out four assists while birthday girl Lexie Lantz netted eight and collected six boards.  Van Tash tallied six while Lehman added four from the free throw line.  Each freshman added four rebounds.  

The Dutchmen are next in action on Saturday afternoon when they host Commonwealth foe Arcadia.  Tip-off is set for 1 p.m.