ANNVILLE, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley women's basketball team earned a huge Senior Day victory on Saturday as they outscored visiting Arcadia University 17-5 in the fourth quarter to defeat the Knights 55-45 at Sorrentino Gymnasium in Annville.
 
The Dutchmen (18-5, 9-3 MAC Freedom) took sole possession of second place in the conference standings with just two games left to play in the regular season. Arcadia (15-9, 8-4 MAC Freedom) did most of its scoring in the first and third quarters, while LVC was balanced in its scoring for all four quarters. Brielle Reidinger and Riley Hevelow scored the first four points of the game as Hevelow hit Reidinger for a layup, and then the senior guard knocked down a jumper on the left wing. The Knights responded with a driving layup and a three-pointer to take a 5-4 lead. Kailey Eckhart knocked down a three-pointer at the top of the key off an assist from Reidinger to put LVC back ahead. Arcadia countered right back with a three-pointer and then a steal and bucket to go up 10-7 at the media timeout.
 
The Knights came out of the timeout, and after the teams traded missed three-point attempts, Arcadia knocked down a three that put them up by six. Abbie Reed hit a pull-up jumper in the paint, and the Knights responded at the other end to keep a six-point advantage with 2:48 left in the quarter. The Dutchmen scored the final four points of the quarter as Megan Albrecht made a pair of shots at the line and then Eckhart used a nice pass to find Adrianna Stricek open under the hoop for two points. Reed came up with a big steal on the final play of the quarter to keep the score 15-13 in favor of the visitors.
 
LVC used the momentum and held Arcadia scoreless over nearly the first seven minutes of the second quarter. Hevelow put back an offensive rebound to tie the score with 7:23 to play in the half. Alexa Holcomb found Reed open in the corner for a three-pointer, and then Reidinger made a layup to push the advantage to five with six minutes on the clock. Neither team scored over the next two minutes until Reidinger made a free throw. Eckhart drove to the rim for two points with 3:28 to play and gave LVC its largest lead of the first half at 23-15. The Knights made back-to-back three-pointers while Albrecht drove along the baseline for a layup for the Dutchmen. The Dutchmen were able to get to the line over the final two minutes of the half, but were unable to convert their free throws, and the score remained 25-21 at the break.
 
The teams traded buckets over the first five possessions of the third quarter. Reed and Hevelow had a pair of pull-up jumpers near the elbow, while Arcadia used a jumper, a three-point play, and a three-pointer to even the score at 29. Hevelow found Reidinger streaking towards the paint, and the forward knocked down a jumper in the middle of the paint to put LVC back ahead with seven minutes left. The Knights kept the Dutchmen off the board for nearly five minutes and scored four times to retake the lead. Arcadia used three layups and a three-pointer with 2:44 on the clock to go up 38-31. Hevelow stopped the run with a corner three-pointer. Arcadia scored in the paint with two minutes left in the quarter to keep the advantage at six. LVC ended the quarter strong with a pair of layups by Eckhart and Reidinger to cut the deficit to two at 40-38 heading into the final 10 minutes of play.
 
The fourth quarter began with Reidinger getting to the line and making one of her two shots. The Knights made their only field goal of the quarter on a three-pointer with 7:44 left to take a 43-39 advantage. Reidinger pulled up right outside the paint on the left side and backed a shot in to cut the lead in half. The Dutchmen locked down on defense, and so did the Knights, as neither team was able to make a field goal for a three-minute stretch. Each team did make a free throw during that time as Stricek made it a 44-42 game.
 
Reidinger tied the game with four minutes to play on a turnaround jumper in the middle of the paint. LVC played great defense, but Arcadia was able to work its way open for a corner three-pointer. Luckily, the three bounced off the rim, and Reed came up with the big rebound. Hevelow then put the Dutchmen ahead with a driving layup with 3:20 left. The Knights cut the lead in half with a free throw. The lead was still 46-45 when Holcomb grabbed a defensive rebound with 1:56 left, and LVC called a timeout to advance the ball. Hevelow was fouled and made both of her shots at the line to push the advantage to three.
 
Arcadia had a three-point attempt miss that would have tied the game, and Reed came up with another big rebound with under 30 seconds left. Hevelow was fouled and made one of two shots at the line. Holcomb then put the game away with a big steal off a side inbound pass. The guard was fouled and made both her shots at the line to give LVC a 51-45 advantage with 23 seconds to go. Erika Badner then made four shots at the line to close out the game.
 
Inside the Box

• The Dutchmen earned a big Senior Day victory over Arcadia for the second year in a row.
• Reidinger scored a game-high 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds to pace the Dutchmen.
• Hevelow also had a game-high 14 points. She also had four rebounds and three assists.
• Reed had a huge game on the boards with nine rebounds. The junior also scored seven points and recorded three steals.
• Eckhart had seven points, two blocks, and six rebounds.
• Holcomb pulled down six rebounds, scored two points, and had two steals.
• The Dutchmen had a 40-26 rebounding advantage, including recording 12 boards on the offensive glass.
• LVC scored 24 points in the paint and 11 points off 15 Arcadia turnovers.
• The Dutchmen are second in the conference standings with two games to play. They are one game back of DeSales for first place and one game ahead of Arcadia and Stevens in third.
• Lebanon Valley finishes the home slate of the regular season with an impressive 11-1 record at Sorrentino Gymnasium.

Up Next
LVC will be on the road for the final week of the regular season, starting with another big matchup at Stevens Institute of Technology on Wednesday evening. Tipoff against the Ducks is slated for 7 p.m. at Canavan Arena in Hoboken, New Jersey.

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