ANNVILLE, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley Women's Basketball team had four scorers in double figures and battled back from a 16-point halftime deficit in a tough 72-65 defeat to visiting Elizabethtown College on Tuesday evening at Sorrentino Gymnasium.
 
Elizabethtown (5-1) entered the week receiving votes in the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll and scored the first points of the game on a tip-in after a little over 90 seconds of play. The Dutchmen (3-2) responded with a layup by Brielle Reidinger to tie the game up. LVC then forced a turnover and Cristina Fernandez found Riley Hevelow open for a layup while being fouled. Hevelow made the free throw to give the Dutchmen a 5-2 advantage. A pair of three-pointers put the Blue Jays up by three. Etown increased the advantage to seven on a jumper in the paint with 3:30 to go in the first quarter. Fernandez dished out another assist finding Elise Balmer cutting to the basket. After an EC bucket, Hevelow knocked down a three to make it a four-point game. The Blue Jays scored on a driving layup right before the quarter ended to take a 17-11 lead.
 
The Blue Jays started the second quarter strong and a three-pointer a couple minutes in gave the visitors a 10-point lead at 23-13. Kailey Eckhart knocked down a three at the other end of the court, but Etown responded with another three by Cyleigh Wilson. Alexa Holcomb grabbed an offensive board and hit a jumper before Elizabethtown scored on a driving layup to make it 28-18 halfway through the quarter. The Blue Jays outscored the Dutchmen 12-6 over the final five minutes with LVC getting buckets from Hevelow, Fernandez, and Balmer.
 
LVC came out firing on all cylinders to begin the second half as Fernandez hit a jumper, Hevelow knocked down a step back three, and the. Reindinger scored down low to make it 40-31 and force the Blue Jays to call an early timeout. Etown used a 8-5 run over the next three minutes to get the lead back up to 12 midway through the quarter. Reidinger found Fernandez cutting to the rim for two and after a stop scored on a layup to bring the advantage back down to single digits. The teams traded made layups until Reidinger scored another bucket down low with two minutes left. Neither team scored over the next minute and Balmer scored the final points of the quarter with a putback bucket underneath to make it a six-point game a 52-46.
 
The Blue Jays were able to increase the lead up to 11 over the first couple minutes of the final quarter. Reidinger brought it back down to eight with an old-fashioned three-point play. Two possessions later, Abbie Reed banked in a three from the right wing to make it 60-55. The deficit was at six points when Reidinger and Balmer made back-to-back layups to make it a one-possession game with four minutes on the clock. The Blue Jays responded with the next four points by Summer McNulty. Hevelow answered with a three to get the advantage down to three points with 2:50 remaining. Neither team was able to make a field goal the rest of the way while Elizabethtown closed out the scoring with six made free throws while LVC 2-4 at the line and missed three jump shots.
 
Inside the Box

• Hevelow led the team in scoring with 21 points. The junior knocked down a trio of three-pointers and was 2-3 at the line.
• Reidinger finished with 13 points and five rebounds with three assists. Four of her five rebounds were on the offensive glass.
• Balmer had a career-high 11 points on 5-8 shooting. She also grabbed three rebounds.
• Fernandez had 10 points, six rebounds, five steals, and four assists.
• LVC outscored the Blue Jays 22-12 in the third quarter making 10 of the 15 shots they took during the quarter.
• The Dutchmen had a season-high 11 steals and forced a season-high 22 turnovers. LVC scored 22 points off the 22 turnovers.

Up Next
Lebanon Valley will be back in action on Saturday with a trip up to Scranton to face Marywood University. Tip-off against the Pacers is scheduled for 1 p.m.

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