The Lancaster Bible College women's basketball team led by as many as 11 points in the fourth quarter, but couldn't hold off a charging Penn St. Harrisburg squad, and fell to the Nittany Lions, 64-58 at Horst Athletic Center on Thursday night. The loss drops the Chargers to 4-4 this season, while the Nittany Lions improved to 3-6.

How it Happened: Both teams struggled to get their respective offenses going on Thursday night, as the game was tied 7-7 six minutes into the game. Lancaster Bible's offense finally began to click late in the opening quarter, thanks in large part to sophomore Caitlin Hickey who knocked three jumpers in the final 2:31 of the first quarter to help give the Chargers a 15-11 edge after 10 minutes of play.

Lancaster Bible extended its lead to seven just 13 seconds into the second quarter thanks to a 3-pointer from sophomore Kaylee Boger, but Penn St. Harrisburg scored the next five points to trim its deficit to two. The Chargers responded with a 9-0 run of their own, as senior Kirsten Webster had four points during the run, while Hickey added another 3-pointer. In a game that would feature scoring runs throughout the 40 minutes, the Nittany Lions closed the gap to four, 27-23, and Lancaster Bible eventually took a 32-29 advantage into halftime.

Penn St. Harrisburg opened the second half on an 8-1 run over the first 4:23 and took a 37-33 lead off a layup from Jada Pettis. Lancaster Bible's finally woke up and used a 13-2 run over the final 5:37 of the third quarter to take a 46-39 lead after 30 minutes of play. Hickey was huge during the scoring run, knocking down two more 3-pointers to cap the run and give the Chargers a seven-point advantage.

Hickey scored five of the first seven points of the fourth quarter for Lancaster Bible and freshman Leah Steiner's layup, off a great pass from Webster, give the Chargers a 55-44 lead with 6:01 to play. Penn St. Harrisburg never quit and eventually cut its deficit to one, 56-55, on a layup from Janel Brown with 2:12 remaining. 

Webster restored the Chargers' three-point lead with two free throws, but Brown knocked down a 3-pointer with 1:30 to play to knot the game at 58-58. The Nittany Lions turned back-to-back Lancaster Bible turnovers into back-to-back buckets and led 62-58 after Pettis' layup with 21 seconds to play. 

Lancaster Bible's attempts at the end missed and Penn St. Harrisburg hit two free throws to ice the game.

By the Numbers: Lancaster Bible shot 21-of-55 (38.2 percent) from the floor, but just 8-of-29 (27.6 percent) in the second half...Penn St. Harrisburg was 27-of-55 (49.1 percent) from the field...Hickey finished with a game-high 24 points on 9-of-21 shooting, including 5-of-11 from 3-point range...Junior Courtney Goyak added 12 points and 10 rebounds to extend double-double streak to 37 games...Webster finished with 12 points, five rebounds and five steals, while freshman Lizzy Tilton had five points and two assists...Steiner also had two points and three assists...Shanique Mattis had a team-high 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting for Penn St. Harrisburg.

The Coach Says: "We had good stretches and bad stretches tonight and were just too inconsistent," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Katelyn Vanderhoff said. "We couldn't get stops in the fourth quarter and they took advantage. Harrisburg is a physical team and we couldn't match that late in the game and it cost us."

Information Hodge Podge: Lancaster Bible and Penn St. Harrisburg are now tied 7-7 in the all-time series against one another...The Chargers' three-game win streak against the Nittany Lions is also finished, as Penn St. Harrisburg defeated Lancaster Bible for the first time since Dec. 6, 2012 when both teams were part of the North Eastern Athletic Conference...This was the first meeting between the two schools since Dec. 12, 2014 when the Chargers defeated Penn St. Harrisburg, 65-47...Lancaster Bible is 2-2 at home this season...The Chargers have made 15 3-pointers over the past two games, their best two-game stretch of the season...Hickey leads the team with 22 3-pointers this season, as she and Boger have combined for 32 of the team's 33 triples this season.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible wraps up NEAC play for the first semester on Saturday with a 2 p.m. contest at St. Elizabeth...The Chargers will then face Neumann (Dec. 16) and Hood (Dec. 18) to conclude the first semester schedule.