The Lancaster Bible College women's basketball team cruised to a win over Wells College in United East action on Saturday afternoon, winning by a score of 68-32. The Chargers improve to 12-8 overall and 7-5 in United East contests, while the Express fall to 0-21 overall and 0-12 in conference action. 
 
How it Happened: Freshman Irene Were kicked off the scoring with a pair of free throws, then later Sydney Heller drained a 3-pointer to extend the early lead to 7-0. Wells cut the lead to just six points, but 3-pointers from Mikayla Via and Heller helped the Chargers lead 17-5 after one quarter of play. 

Were and Heller had a layup and a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 17 points early in the second quarter, then Morgan Adams drove for a layup to bring the Express back within 15. After a Faith Hammond jumper, sophomore Gianna Hegler made a jump shot off a pass from Adalyn Steiner for her first points of her collegiate career. The next trip down the floor, Hegler connected on her first 3-point bucket for five quick points, then Via hit a three off a pass from Alaysha Iwais to extend the lead to 32-9. Steiner and Via each added layups with less than two minutes left in the half to give Lancaster Bible a 27-point lead at halftime, leading 36-9. 

The Chargers' first basket of the second half came off an in-bounds pass from Iwais to Steiner to make the score 38-9, then Wells responded about two minutes later with two jumpers to cut it down to 25. Via then hit a 3-pointer off an assist from Shelby Gard, then found Hammond for a mid-range jumper to extend the lead to 30 points. Heller followed with a reverse layup to enter double digit scoring for Lancaster. The Express were able to win the third quarter with some made baskets in the last few minutes to cut the LBC lead to 47-22 after 30 minutes of play. 

Steiner had three layups in a row in the first minute of the fourth quarter to bring LBC past the 50-point mark and extend the lead to 31 points. After a Wells jumper from Sydney Bateman, Hammond hit a layup as the shot clock expired and Iwais connected on a 3-pointer to make the score 58-24. Wells connected on a three-point play to close the gap to 27, then Heller found Gard on a layup for her first score of the game. Dombach added one more score before time expired, and Lancaster Bible claimed a 36-point win to conclude their New York road trip. 
 
 
By the Numbers

• The Chargers shot 39.4% (28-71) for the game and 32.3% (10-31) on 3-pointers, going 2-3 on free throws. 

• The Express shot 24.1% (13-54) from the field and 14.3% (2-14) from 3-point range, shooting 4-5 from the free throw line. 

• Lancaster Bible had 26 bench points and 20 points in the paint, dominating the glass with 18 offensive rebounds. 

• The Chargers also connected on 22 assists on 28 made field goals. 

• Jenna Dombach led LBC with a game-high 12 points and dished a team-high six assists. 

• Mikayla Via and Sydney Heller each added 11 points with three 3-point makes. 

• Adalyn Steiner rounded out the Chargers' double-digit scoring with 10 points, and Irene Were secured a team-high 12 rebounds. 

• The Express were led by Morgan Adams who had 11 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. 

Information to Know: The Chargers are now 15-1 all-time against Wells College and have won 11 straight games against the Express, including a dominant 106-19 win in the Horst Athletic Center earlier this season on January 21. Gianna Hegler scored her first career points in the second quarter, finishing with five points on the day. Junior Jenna Dombach surpassed 500 career points this afternoon and now has 510 total points. Senior Adalyn Steiner reached 200 points for the season and is currently 11th in the United East in points per game at 10.5 PPG. Alaysha Iwais dished five assists today, bringing her to 96 assists on the season, currently the 9th-most in a single season in Chargers history. 
 
Up Next: The women's basketball team will be on the road again next week as they travel to Williamsport, Pa. to take on the Penn College Wildcats in an important conference game on Wednesday, February 8th at 5:00 p.m.