No. 25 Messiah 85, Lebanon Valley 79

LVC Starters
Evans, Yoh, Lantz, Lehr, Copeland

Messiah Starters
Thornton, Rohrer, Glackin, Hoff, Chavous

How It Happened
Lebanon Valley erased an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime, but was eventually edged out by No. 25 Messiah 85-79 on Wednesday night in MAC Commonwealth women's basketball action. The Dutchmen fell to 7-10, 4-4 MAC Commonwealth and the Falcons jumped to 16-1, 7-1 MAC Commonwealth.

Down by six at 57-51 heading into the fourth quarter, a 5-0 spurt helped Messiah improve its lead to 11 points at 62-51 with 8:13 remaining. It was at that point that LVC began its comeback as a four-minute 11-4 run brought the Dutchmen to within four at 66-62 with 4:11 remaining in the fourth. After the Falcons went back up by six (68-62) with 3:55 to go, LVC answered by scoring six in a row and two free throws from Becky Evans tied things up with 1:07 left.

With 37 ticks left on the clock, Jasmine Copeland netted a layup, but later, with about 30 seconds remaining, Maci Thornton knocked down two free throws to tie it again, this time at 71-71. LVC was playing for the last shot of the fourth quarter, but with four seconds left, Copeland was unable to connect on her shot. Messiah called a quick timeout to advance the ball with 1.5 seconds to go, but Alecia Rohrer's jumper at buzzer didn't go, sending the game into overtime.

To start the overtime period, Gillian Glackin scored OT's first three points all from the charity stripe. After Evans hit a jumper to make it 74-73 in favor of Messiah at 4:07, four consecutive Messiah points put the Falcons up by five at 78-73 with 3:01 to go. The Dutchmen came to within three after Evans hit back-to-back free throws, but that was as close as they would get and Messiah shut the door and clamped down on defense en route to the 85-79 win.

Inside the Numbers
 - Evans was masterful, netting a career-best 30 points on 10-of-18 shooting, including a 4-for-8 mark from beyond the arc and a 6-for-6 line from the charity stripe.
 - Hilary Yoh was also impressive and scored 23 points for the Dutchmen on 10-of-18 shooting, while the senior captain added eight boards, including seven defensive rebounds.
 - Anne Lehr registered a career-high nine assists and she also came down with five rebounds and four steals.
 - For the Falcons, Thornton, Rohrer, and Glackin all finished with 16 points and Kaitlyn Hoff added 14 more.
 - Messiah outshot LVC 43.5-percent to 40.5-percent from the floor.
 - The Falcons got to the free throw line 33 times, making 25 of those for a 75.8-percent line and LVC went 13-for-16 (81.3-percent).

Who's Next?
LVC continues conference action at home on Saturday when the Dutchmen host Alvernia at 2 p.m.