The Lancaster Bible College women's basketball team lost its opening North Eastern Athletic Conference game of the season on Saturday, falling to Morrisville State, 76-42 in upstate New York. The Chargers are now 0-6 overall this season and 0-1 in conference play, while the Mustangs improved to 4-3 overall and 1-0 in NEAC action.
 
How it Happened: It was the Chargers who actually jumped out to a 4-0 lead thanks to back-to-back buckets from Christine Graves and Jordyn Beers. Lancaster Bible led 6-3 a minute later, but Morrisville State owned the opening quarter from that point, and finished the final seven minutes on a 19-4 run, and led 23-10 after 10 minutes of play.
 
Things went from bad to worse over the first 5:07 of the second quarter, as Morrisville State scored the first 13 points of the quarter, and led 36-10 after a layup from Shardae Cooper. Lancaster Bible answered with a 9-0 run of its own over the next three minutes, as the team got baskets from Alaysha Iwais and Caitlin Hickey broke up the scoring run, and then after free throws from Paige Towne went through the hoop, Hope Hodges capped the run with a 3-pointer.
 
Lancaster Bible trailed 39-19 at the half, and Morrisville State stretched the lead to 29 with a 13-4 run to begin the third quarter. The Chargers' deficit grew to 33 points after the third quarter, and Lancaster Bible trailed by as many as 38 midway through the fourth quarter, before baskets from Towne and Tenia Brown capped the scoring for the visitors.
 
Statistically Speaking: Lancaster Bible shot 27.4 percent (17-of-62) from the field, but just 11.8 percent (2-of-17) from 3-point range…Morrisville State shot 37.5 percent (30-of-80) from the floor, and 29.5 percent (13-of-44) from beyond the arc…The Mustangs held a 32-0 lead in points off turnovers…Hickey led the Chargers with 11 points and nine rebounds…Paige Towne had eight points and three boards…Graves had six points and four rebounds…Lizzy Tilton had four points, four rebounds, and three assists…Beers added four points and five boards…Tori Rockefeller and Rachel Vieira combined for 35 points for the Mustangs.
 
The Coach Says: "We struggled to execute our game plan today," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Katelyn Vanderhoff said. "We knew they wanted to play fast and would shoot a lot from the outside, and they did just that and forced us into 20 first-half turnovers."
 
Vanderhoff on Future Games: "We will have to do the little things better in order to be successful going forward," Vanderhoff said.
 
News & Notes: Lancaster Bible is now 7-4 all-time against Morrisville State…The Chargers defeated the Mustangs, 55-44 last season in Lancaster…Lancaster Bible is 0-5 in all games away from Horst Athletic Center this season…The Chargers are 0-6 for the first time since the 1994-95 season…Saturday marked the third time this season Lancaster Bible has been held to 45 points or less…The Chargers committed a season-low seven fouls on Saturday, but also committed a season-high 29 turnovers.
 
Up Next: Lancaster Bible will wrap-up its first semester slate on Wednesday in Frederick, Md., as the Chargers battle Hood at 6 p.m.