Sunday News

Women

Elizabethtown turns back Hood

Elizabethtown turned its game up a notch in the second half, breaking free from a 24-24 halftime tie to defeat Hood 58-47 in a Commonwealth Conference women's basketball contest Saturday afternoon.

Hood, the last-place team in the conference, was anything but hapless in the first half, despite its season winding down with no postseason games in sight. The Blazers (3-13 CC, 5-18) led by as many as 10 points in the first eight minutes as the Jays struggled to get their offense off the ground.

When that offense finally did come for Sherri Gorman's club, Hood could not counter. Katy Fogel, Taylor Kreider, Taylor Alwine and Rachel Forjan all contributed points over a four-minute span in which E-town (9-7, 12-10) trimmed the Blazers' lead to 14-13. The teams were nearly even the rest of the half, with Elizabethtown going in front at the 4:48 mark on an Alwine layup.

Briana Lee tied the game for the Blazers 31 seconds prior to halftime, giving her team a boost. The Blue Jays controlled the game in the second half, however.

Three players -- Fogel, Kendra Beittel and Kreider -- led the Jays on a 15-2 run to open the second half.

Kreider ended the day a rebound short of her 15th double-double. She had a team-high 15 points and nine rebounds. Kreider currently has 927 career points, including her freshman season at Penn State Berks. In a little less than two seasons at Elizabethtown she's totaled 639 points.

Beittel stayed hot with 14 points and was 8-of-10 at the charity stripe. Beittel's been in double figures in seven of Elizabethtown's last 10 games.

Swarthmore 74, Franklin & Marshall 68: A career-high 34 points for Alexa Barbush paced a late second-half rally for Franklin & Marshall, however, the Diplomats fell short against Swarthmore in Centennial Conference action.

Barbush scored 21 points in the second-half on 9-of-16 shooting to go along with four assists as the Diplomats (4-14 CC, 7-15) turned a 14-point deficit with 12:08 remaining into a three-point game at 66-63 with 2:46 left.

Swarthmore pushed the lead to six after a pair of free throws to make the score 70-64 with 1:29 to go. Colleen Bott answered with a jumper on the Diplomats' next possession to cut the deficit to four with 44 seconds remaining.

On the other end of the court, Elizabeth Snyder picked up her sixth steal of the afternoon and the team's 14th of the contest. The senior guard crashed the lane on the ensuing possession, picking up a foul. At the line she hit both attempts to make it 70-68 with 16 second left.

However, the Garnet (14-4, 18-5) went 4-for-4 from the line in the closing seconds to ice the win.

In addition to picking up a career-high in points, Barbush added six rebounds, five assists and four steals on the day.

Snyder finished in double-digits with 14 while tacking on six boards.

Lancaster Bible 69, Wilson 40: Lancaster Bible senior Lauren Heliger set a new program record with her 1,384th point on Saturday as she poured in 26 points and added eight assists in the Chargers' North Eastern Athletic Conference victory.

Needing 21 to break the record, Heliger scored 14 in the first half and with 15:28 to play in the second half pulled up for a jumper and broke the record on her seventh field goal of the day. The previous record was held by Jill London, who played at LBC from 1983 to 1987.

The Chargers (13-2 NEAC, 18-4) controlled play from the opening tip as they opened the game on a 22-0 run. Wilson (0-14, 2-16) finally got on the board with 10:14 remaining in the first half as Tara Fields hit two free throws.

LBC sophomore Sarah Heilenman added 14 points and seven boards for the Chargers, while freshman Aubrey Folger had 10 points and six rebounds.n