There hot shooting and then there is what the College of St. Elizabeth did in the first half on Thursday night at Lancaster Bible College. The Screaming Eagles hit eight 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes to take a 45-27 lead into the break and they never looked back as the defeated the Chargers, 75-65 on Play 4Kay Night at LBC.

The North Eastern Athletic Conference's leading scorer, Sabrina Jarmolinski, had three of St. Elizabeth's 3-pointers in the first half, en route to 17 points in the opening half. She didn't stop there and added 16 more points in the second, finishing with 33 points and 11 rebounds.

LBC tried everything they could in both halves, but simply couldn't stop the Screaming Eagles from beyond the arc. St. Elizabeth finished with 12 3-pointers which made up almost half of their 26 buckets. The Chargers meanwhile, were 0-for-9 from beyond the arc, but did hit 25 of their 30 free throws.

"They scored threes and we scored by ones and twos," Chargers' Head Coach Doug Helsel said. "That was the difference in the game."

One of LBC's bright spots was Emily Lloyd who had a career-high 22 points to go with three rebounds. Another bright spot was the aforementioned 25-of-30 shooting from the free throw line. Over the past five games, LBC is 83-of-102 [81.4%] from the free throw line,  well above their season average of 66.2%.

"Emily was a force in the first half," Helsel said. "I thought we should have gone to her more in the second half, but we just didn't do a good job getting her the ball."

Because of Penn St. Berks' loss to Penn St. Harrisburg on Wednesday night, the Chargers entered Thursday's game knowing they had clinched the third and final NEAC South Division playoff spot. They also knew their first-round opponent would be St. Elizabeth.

"Tonight was a good chance to stretch our legs and we wanted to see how we stacked up with St. Elizabeth," Helsel said. "They came out quick and we just didn't adjust fast enough. The matchups will be similar next week and we will simply have to play better."

The Chargers will travel to Morristown, N.J. on Tuesday to take on St. Elizabeth in the opening round of the NEAC playoffs. Prior to that game however, the Chargers will wrap up the regular season on Saturday against Penn St. Berks as they honor their lone senior, Brittney Becker, before the game.  Saturday's tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m.