Lebanon Valley 66, Albright 65
 
LVC Starters
Lehr, Bamberger, Scarff, Kline, Venezia
 
Albright Starters
Killion, Mohamed, Marcus, Dienes, Bruker
 
How It Happened
READING, Pa. – Lebanon Valley's women's basketball team held off a late Albright rally and escaped Reading with a 66-65 victory on Saturday afternoon in MAC Commonwealth action. The won their third straight and improved to 4-4, 2-0 MACC, while the Lions fell to 3-5, 0-2 MACC.
 
Up by five at 49-44 with 7:32 left in the fourth quarter, LVC saw its lead shrink to three when Zaria Mohamed sank two consecutive free throws to bring Albright to within three at 49-46. On the Dutchmen's ensuing possession, Emily Mealey made a jumper in the paint, and later, Veronica Venezia connected on a layup to put the visitors back up by seven at 53-46 with 6:18 to go. Eventually, LVC extended its advantage to 10 when Caroline Scarff netted back-to-back free throws at 4:13. Then, with 2:16 to go and the Dutchmen still ahead by 10, Albright slowly began to come back and made it a five-point game at 64-59 with 33 seconds to go after Lauren Killion's jumper.
 
Then, with 26 seconds to go, Gabby Boggs made two straight from the charity stripe, bringing the home team to within three at 65-62. With six ticks left, Ashley Kline made one of her two free throws to make it a four-point lead, and after a timeout, Alli Marcus sank a triple with three seconds to go, but the clock ran out and the Dutchmen were able to escape with the one-point victory.
 
LVC dominated in the early going, jumping out to a 14-4 advantage with 4:20 left in the first after Morgan Bamberger's trey from Jen Eck gave the Dutchmen a 10-point cushion. The Dutchmen's defense continued to shine in the opening quarter and they allowed just eight points in the first en route to the 10-point lead at 18-8 after one quarter of action.
 
Albright responded in the first five minutes of the second quarter by going on an 8-5 run to come to within seven of the Dutchmen at 23-16 with 5:47 left. Slowly, the Lions continued to chip into LVC's lead, and at 1:39 Mealey made a jumper to give the Dutchmen an 11-point advantage. Albright, however, scored the last five points of the quarter and was within four of LVC at 30-26 heading into halftime.
 
In the third, the Lions clawed back and eventually tied things up at 35-35 with 6:18 left in the third. Back-and-forth action continued as neither team could create any significant runs until when the Lions were ahead 39-38, LVC went on a 5-0 run, capped by Mealey's trey with three minutes to go to put the Dutchmen ahead 44-39, as the visitors were ahead by three at the end of the third after a late Mealey jumper.
 
Inside the Numbers
 - Today's win was LVC's first over Albright since Jan. 31, 2015 when the Dutchmen defeated the Lions 70-60.
 - Mealey ended with a game-high 18 points and she added a pair of rebounds and an assist.
 - Caroline Scarff finished with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting and she was 5-for-5 from the charity stripe. While adding a team-high eight boards.
 - Bamberger chipped in 12 points and dished out six assists.
 - Anne Lehr went for 10 points and dished out a game-high eight assists and played all 40 minutes.
 - Venezia had eight points for LVC.
 - Mohamed and Boggs each finished with 15 points each for the Lions, while Killion added 13.
 - LVC led in total field goal percentage at 38.7-percent to 37.5-percent.
 - The Dutchmen held the edge in points off turnovers to 20-18.
 - LVC also led in bench points at 20-17.
 - The home team narrowly led in points in the paint at 32-26.
 
Who's Next?
LVC returns to the friendly confines of Sorrentino Gymnasium on Wednesday to battle Lycoming at 8 p.m.
 
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