Looking to accomplish what the Lancaster Bible men's basketball team did this week, which was beat Elizabethtown for the first time in program history, the Lancaster Bible women's basketball team played as though it might do so for the first 25 minutes of Thursday night's game in Elizabethtown, Pa. The host Blue Jays had other ideas as they shot 17-of-31 in the second half, including 6-of-8 from beyond the arc, and defeated the Chargers, 74-54 at Thompson Gymnasium. 

The win improves Elizabethtown to 5-0 all-time against the Chargers who fell to 1-1 this season.

The Chargers held a 4-0 lead in the early going as Elizabethtown didn't get on the scoreboard until the 17:02 mark, but it began a 12-1 run over the next four minutes for the Blue Jays who turned the four-point deficit into a seven-point lead at 12-5. The pesky Chargers were not deterred as they fought back and closed the gap to three at 20-17 after a nice layup by Kirsten Webster with 8:56 to play in the opening half.

Elizabethtown (3-0) responded and took its biggest lead of the half with 3:31 to play when Sabrina Hackendorn hit a running layup in the paint to make it 30-21 in favor of the Blue Jays. Lancaster Bible hit 7-of-8 free throws in the final three minutes of the first half however and ended the half on a 7-1 run and trailed just 31-28 at the break.

The Chargers opened the scoring in the second half as well and cut the deficit to 31-30 on a jumper by Aubrey Folger who led the team with 21 points. Lancaster Bible would not get any closer as Elizabethtown's Rachel Forjan took the game over. She scored eight of Elizabethtown's next 10 points as the Blue Jays went on a 10-1 run and re-opened their nine-point lead.

The hot shooting for the Blue Jays continued the rest of the half as they outscored the Chargers, 43-26 in the second half. Forjan had 19 of her game-high 25 points in the second half as she was 7-of-10 from the floor in the second half, including 5-of-7 from beyond the arc.

"I thought we played well in the first half and made big stops when we needed to," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Rachel Steinbarger said. "We obviously struggled to guard Forjan in the second half and I didn't think we had the same spark we had in the first half."

Some of the spark in the first half had to do with Lancaster Bible getting the dual sport student-athletes onto the court for the first time as the Lancaster Bible soccer season ended on Saturday, thus Christy Lorah, Meaghan Williams, Naomi Otis and Emily Beltran joined the squad.

"Christy came in and did great things for us tonight and Meaghan did the small things to help the team," Steinbarger said. "I thought Kirsten and Aubrey put in good minutes as well."

The Chargers shot just 33.3% (18-of-54) from the floor on Thursday and just 10-of-25 in the second half. Shanice Smith had her second double-double of the season as she finished with 11 points and 13 boards, while Williams capped her first game of the year with six points and six rebounds. 

The early season rust was still apparent for both teams as they combined for 51 turnovers, 31 by the Chargers and 20 by the Blue Jays.

Lancaster Bible returns to the court on Monday when they take on Immaculata at 6 p.m. in Immaculata, Pa.