The Lancaster Bible College women's basketball team fell just short of completing a comeback for the ages on Wednesday night at Neumann as the Chargers lost, 86-78 to the Knights in Aston, Pa. Trailing 34-5 after the first quarter, the Chargers stormed back over the next three quarters, cut their deficit to five, but ultimately couldn't complete the comeback and dropped to 3-3 this season. Neumann improved to 3-4 following the victory.

How it Happened: Everything that could go wrong in the first quarter did for the Chargers as Neumann jumped out to a 21-1 lead over the first 7:03 of the contest. After back-to-back layups from Krissy Pennell and Caitlin Hickey cut the Chargers' deficit to 18, the Knights used another 11-0 run to end the quarter and took a 34-5 advantage after 10 minutes.

Lancaster Bible's slumbering offense finally woke up in the second quarter, though Neumann continued to score on many of its possessions as well. The Chargers slowly began to peck away at Neumann's lead and the Chargers trailed by 22, 54-32 at the break. 

Neumann grew its lead back to 28 just over four minutes into the third quarter at 64-36, but Lancaster Bible ended the quarter on a 15-4 run and trailed just 68-51 after Hickey converted another layup with just one second remaining. 

The teams went bucket-for-bucket early in the fourth quarter, but Pennell's jumper with 4:31 remaining brought the Chargers' deficit to just nine, 77-68. Hickey's layup with 1:40 remaining made it a five-point game at 81-76 and after Neumann increased its lead back to seven, Emily Morgan connected on a jumper with 50 seconds left to trim the deficit back to five.

It would be as close as the Chargers got however as the Knights converted three of four free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.

By the Numbers: After a poor-shooting first half (37.5 percent), the Chargers shot 60 percent in the second half and finished the game 33-of-67 (49.3 percent), including 5-of-12 from beyond the arc...Neumann shot 33-of-65 (50.8 percent) from the floor...Hickey had 23 points on 10-of-22 shooting, her fourth straight game of 22 points or more...Pennell finished with 18 points, nine assists and six rebounds...Sophomore Courtney Goyak had her sixth double-double in as many games with 18 points and 24 rebounds...Morgan added 12 points, while Naomi Otis had four points and two boards...Kaylee Boger had three points and two rebounds as well.

The Coach Says: "We didn't come ready to play," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Katelyn Vanderhoff said. "We didn't play with any intensity and fight in the first quarter and Neumann, to its credit, took advantage of that."

On the Final Three Quarters: "We challenged our players at the end of the first quarter and slowly you could see our team respond," Vanderhoff said. "We won the last three quarters and played together as one unit. We definitely don't want to have one of those quarters, but I believe our team learned from it and will be better because of it."

Information Hodge Podge: Lancaster Bible is now 0-2 all-time against Neumann...This was the first meeting between the two teams since the 1987-88 season...Neumann won the previous contest, 93-36...Prior to the contest, Goyak was leading NCAA Division III in rebounds per game at 18.6, a mark which will go up after her 24 boards Wednesday night.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible plays its final North Eastern Athletic Conference game of the first semester on Friday when the Chargers host Penn St. Berks at 5:30 p.m...It will be Christmas at Horst Athletic Center on Friday, so wear your best Christmas sweater, shirt, hat, etc. and come cheer on the Chargers.