Box Score Women's Basketball
Lebanon Valley College 65, Messiah College 51
ANNVILLE, Pa. – Senior
Caitlin Bach and sophomore
Taylor Umbrell posted a pair of double-doubles to lead the Lebanon Valley women's basketball team to a 65-51 win over Messiah on Saturday afternoon.
With the win, the Valley moves into a tie for first place and controls their own destiny for the top seed in the upcoming Commonwealth Conference Tournament on Feb. 24-March 1. The victory moves LVC to 18-5 overall and 12-4 in CC action, while Messiah slides to 16-7 on the year and an identical 12-4 in the conference.
Umbrell and Bach were dominant down low for the Dutchmen, leading an impressive 48-27 advantage on the glass. Umbrell tallied a career-high 16 rebounds to go along with her 13 points, two assists, and two steals.
Bach accompanied the sophomore with 13 boards and 13 points, adding two assists and a steal to her statline. Junior
Kiely Chaklos and freshman
Lexie Lantz were also productive, joining the pair in double-figure points with 13 and 12, respectively.
That rebounding edge was the story of the game as LVC totaled 18 offensive rebounds to tie the 18 defensive rebounds for Messiah. That battle on the offensive glass led to 14 second-chance points and 30 points in the paint.
Messiah's foul trouble, coupled with LVC's defense, limited the visitors as the Falcons' Gillian Glackin fouled out with 3:47 to play and both Emily Martz and Siena Wisse were saddled with four fouls for a portion of the second half.
The Falcons went just 18-for-53 from the floor (34.0%) and knocked in four of their 13 three-point attempts. On the other side, the Dutchmen drained 23-of-53 from the field (43.4%).
From the opening tip to the final buzzer, LVC was in control of the game, jumping out to an early 12-4 lead on a Bach layup at the 11:49 mark. A shot from distance by senior
Lauren Ruhl pushed the lead to 11 at 17-6 with 10:56 to go in the half, but Messiah closed the gap over the next few minutes, pulling to within four at 21-17 with 5:31 to play.
Over the next four minutes, the Dutchmen dropped in a string of eight straight points, but gave up the final two buckets of the half to go into the break with a 31-23 lead.
Back-and-forth to open the second half, Messiah's Chelsea Daniel hit a three at the 13:34 mark to cut the lead to six, 40-34. However, LVC went on a patented run again, streaking for 13 straight over the ensuing five minutes to take a 53-34 lead with 8:54 to play and effectively breaking the game open.
The Falcons would only get as close as 11 over the final nine minutes as LVC put together an impressive effort for a 65-51 final.
Next up for the Valley is a trip to Arcadia on Wednesday at 6 p.m., before returning home for their final regular season game against Stevenson on Saturday at 1 p.m.
During halftime of Saturday afternoon's contest, Steph Tighe Sutton '03 and Andrea Hoover '11 were honored as the first women's basketball players to have their jerseys retired on the LVC Gymnasium wall. Each former student-athlete was presented with their framed jersey and had the honor of pulling the sheet to unveil each of their banners in the LVC rafters.
"I couldn't be more excited, not only have my jersey hang in the rafters forever, but to share this honor with Andrea," Sutton said. "I was fortunate enough to coach her for two years and I couldn't be luckier to finally put women on the wall in LVC Gymnasium and to share it with the best athlete."
"It's really incredible," Hoover added. "I was very thankful to have Steph as a coach during my time at LVC and I'm really honored to be able to share this moment with her today."
Sutton and Hoover are the program's only two all-Americans and each earned MAC All-Century team honors a year ago. Their jerseys join the five men's basketball retired jerseys – Howie Landa '55, Don Johnson '73, Mike Rhoades '95, Andy Panko '99, and J.D. Byers '05 – already hanging in the rafters.
Sutton was the first Dutchman to be named an all-American when she did it as a senior in 2002-03. She is LVC's all-time leading scorer with 1,663 career points, and sank a record 597 field goals and 385 free throws in her career. She also owns the record for points in a game when she hit for 42 against Moravian in 2002.
A 2013 inductee to the LVC Athletic Hall of Fame, Sutton was a four-time all-Commonwealth Conference selection and spent two years as an assistant coach for the Dutchmen from 2006 to 2008, including a role in recruiting Hoover and the class that led LVC to its first CC title.
Hoover, currently an assistant coach with the team earned WBCA/State Farm and d3hoops.com All-American honors as a senior in 2010-11 while being named the d3hoops.com Regional Player of the Year. The point guard led LVC to its first Commonwealth Conference title and an NCAA Elite Eight run in 2011, and was a three-time first-team all-CC selection.
Hoover remains LVC's all-time assists leader (586), was a two-time CC Player of the Year, and ended her career with 1,170 points.
