Lebanon Valley 67, Widener 64

LVC Starters
Cirucci, Chaklos, Carper, Troutman, Umbrell

Widener Starters
Gallagher, Ferrucci, Venturelli, Wylie, Furgiuele

How It Happened
CHESTER, Pa. – Lexie Lantz delivered a layup with nine seconds left in the game that proved to be the game winner and Lebanon Valley edged Widener 67-64 on Wednesday night in MAC Commonwealth women's basketball action. The Dutchmen moved to 13-7, 7-4 MAC Commonwealth, while the Pride fell to 12-9, 5-7 MAC Commonwealth.

 Down 64-63 with just 10 seconds remaining, Lantz brought down a huge offensive rebound and followed up with a layup to give LVC a 65-64 advantage. After a Widener timeout, Brianna Wylie turned the ball over, giving the ball back to the Dutchmen with four seconds left. Bridget Rothert was fouled and she sank both free throws, making the score 67-64 in favor of LVC. The Pride's Nikki Petri was able to get a shot off at the buzzer, but it missed, giving the Dutchmen the exhilarating win.

In the early going, it was close with LVC leading 7-6 with 7:11 left in the first quarter. The score remained close until Widener went ahead by three with 1:37 left off a Julia Venturelli jumper. Rachel Kelly made a layup with six seconds left and the Dutchmen were down by three at 18-15 after one quarter of play.

LVC had a huge second quarter, which began after Aly Furgiuele made a layup to make the score 20-15 with 9:27 remaining. From there, the Dutchmen score 20 of the game's next 22 points. During the impressive run, Kiely Chaklos had 10 points and Bridget Rothert had six, as LVC went into halftime with a 35-22 lead after trailing 18-15 at the start of the second quarter.

The Pride took advantage of the halftime break killing some Dutchmen momentum, narrowing LVC's lead to 39-31 with 6:33 left in the third. As Widener kept inching closer, the Dutchmen kept answering and took a 51-44 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

That trend continued in the final quarter, but the Pride finally got to within five points with 3:22 left off a Wylie layup to make it a 61-56 game. The Pride took their first lead of the game since the first quarter when Wylie made a free throw with 23 ticks left on the clock, but Lantz's layup with nine seconds to go eventually clinched the win for LVC.

Top Performer
Chaklos finished with a game-high 20 points on an impressive 8-of-10 shooting from the field and she added three assists.

Inside the Numbers
 - Rothert tallied 14 points and seven rebounds, including six defensive boards, and added a game-high five steals.
 - Lantz finished with 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting.
 - The Dutchmen outshot Widener from the field as a team 45.8-40.6 percent.
 - LVC outrebounded the Pride 44-32.
 - The Dutchmen scored 22 points off turnover compared to Widener's 18.

Turning Point
Lantz's final-second layup was the clincher for LVC. The all-important offensive rebound which occurred before the layup was also clutch.

Playoff Picture
With Lycoming's loss to Messiah tonight, LVC is now in fourth place in the MAC Commonwealth at 7-4, however the Warriors have played one more conference game than the Dutchmen and are 7-5. Albright is first at 11-1, followed by Messiah (8-3) and Stevenson (8-3).

Who's Next?
The Dutchmen play host to Alvernia this Saturday at 4 p.m.