The Lancaster Bible College women's basketball seemed in a funk for 40 minutes on Tuesday night, but somehow came out of it just enough times to narrowly defeat Wilson, 52-51 at Horst Athletic Center, in the North Eastern Athletic Conference opener for each team. The Chargers improved to 2-2 overall with the win and 1-0 in conference play, while the Phoenix dropped to 3-3 overall and 0-1 in NEAC action.

How it Happened: The first quarter began slow as neither team could do much offensively, though Wilson finally strung together a 5-0 run midway through the opening quarter to grab a 12-6 lead following an Ashley Henderson 3-pointer with 3:13 to play. Lancaster Bible hung around and got a layup from sophomore RuthAnn Hostetler with 29 seconds remaining to cut its deficit to 14-10 after 10 minutes of play.

Lancaster Bible scored on its first possession of the second quarter, but didn't score again until junior Courtney Goyak hit a jumper with 4:52 left in the half. By the time Goyak's basket went in, the Chargers had been outscored 6-0 over a 4:40 period and trailed 20-14. Wilson eventually built an eight-point lead at 24-16, but another layup from Hostetler and a  jumper from sophomore Caitlin Hickey with four seconds remaining in the half cut the Chargers' deficit to four, 24-20 at the break.

Wilson opened the third quarter on an 8-1 run, taking its largest lead of the game at 32-21 after a layup from Lindsey Purvis with 7:36 to play. Over two minutes later, Lancaster Bible finally began to wake up as Lancaster Bible finished the final 5:15 of the quarter on a 17-5 run. Hickey, Goyak, Webster and freshman Lizzy Tilton were clutch during the run, as Tilton's hustle got the team going and Hickey capped the quarter with four straight free throws on back-to-back possessions.

The teams battled back-and-forth for all 10 minutes of the fourth quarter, and after a Hickey jumper gave Lancaster Bible a 48-46 lead with 3:10 to play, Wilson's Jordyn Day hit her only shot of the game, a 3-pointer, and gave the Phoenix a 49-48 advantage with 2:48 remaining. After two straight empty possessions, Goyak hit one-of-two free throws to tie the game at 49-49 with 1:40 to play. 

Purvis answered with two free throws with 1:26 left to give the Phoenix a 51-49 lead, but Goyak grabbed an offensive board on the Chargers' next possession and put home the rebound to tie the game at 51-51 with 54 seconds to play. The Phoenix missed a chance to take the lead on their next possession and the Chargers called timeout and set up the final with 26 seconds left. 

After working the shot clock down, Webster took a pass from Hickey and got fouled going to the basket and headed to the free throw line. Webster missed the first free throw, but made the second to put the Chargers ahead by one. After a Wilson timeout, Day drove to the basket, but her shot went wide and Tilton grabbed the rebound and dribbled out the remaining seconds to give Lancaster Bible the victory.

By the Numbers: Lancaster Bible shot 21-of-52 (40.4 percent) from the floor and had an off night at the free throw line as well, shooting just 10-of-25...Wilson fared no better, shooting 18-of-61 (29.5 percent) from the field, including 4-of-19 from 3-point range...The Chargers held a 45-30 edge in rebounds, though Wilson turned the ball over just 11 times, while Lancaster Bible committed 18 turnovers...Hickey led the Chargers with 16 points, while Webster had 15 points, five assists and three rebounds...Goyak finished with 12 points, 17 rebounds and four steals, while Tilton and Hostetler each had four points...Tilton also added eight boards, while Hostetler had seven, including four on the offensive glass...

The Coach Says: "The run in the third quarter was huge tonight and we finally started doing the little things well," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Katelyn Vanderhoff said. "We got stops defensively and got aggressive on the offensive end, which gave us some belief that we could come back. K-Webb [Webster] has been clutch for us all season and she helped create buckets for not only herself, but teammates as well tonight. Goyak and Hickey were good in the second half and Lizzy gave us great energy. There are things to work on, but it's good to win when you don't play your best as well. I liked the fight in us tonight."

Information Hodge Podge: Lancaster Bible is now 25-14 all-time against Wilson and has won 16 straight games against the Phoenix...The Chargers have not lost to Wilson since Nov. 21, 2003...Lancaster Bible defeated Wilson, 89-59 last season at Horst Athletic Center...Each team had 28 points in the paint...The Chargers never held a lead larger than three points on Tuesday night...Goyak stretched her streak of grabbing at least 10 rebounds in a game to 33 games on Tuesday.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible host Messiah on Friday night at 7 p.m...The Falcons are ranked 23rd in the latest D3hoops.com Poll.

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