BOX SCORE
St. Davids, Pa. (Feb. 15, 2007) – Sophomore guard Michelle Lutzkanin (Hummelstown, PA/Lower Dauphin) responded to her second start of the season making a school record nine 3-pointers in 12 attempts to lead Alvernia College to a 92-69 win over Eastern University Thursday evening in Pennsylvania Athletic Conference women’s basketball action at Eastern.
Lutzkanin finished with a career-high 27 points and Alvernia (15-10, 12-4 PAC) wrapped up the third seed in the PAC Championship which starts Monday at home. Alvernia junior Ashley Blevins (York, PA/Central York) also scored a career high for the Crusaders with 18 points. Senior Lauren Fortna (Lebanon, PA/Lebanon Catholic) scored 16 points to reach 954 career points, and freshman Joanna Graber (Manalapan, NJ/Notre Dame) also reached double figures with 14. Eastern (3-21, 2-14 PAC) got 17 apiece from Jacey Bray (Murphy’s, CA/Bret Hart) and Raya Shores (Athens, PA/Athens Area), and 13 from Emily Reeser (Abington, PA).
Eastern knocked down a pair of 3s early to open up an 8-2 lead, but Lutzkanin answered with her first two 3s to knot the score at 8-8. The lead was tied again at 16-all before five straight points from Graber and another Lutzkanin 3 put the guest Crusaders up 24-16.
Eastern cut that lead down to two points with nine minutes left in the opening half, but Fortna scored seven points and Lutzkanin added another 3 during a 16-4 run that put Alvernia up 42-30 with 3:59 left in the first half. Once again the Eagles battled back to cut into the lead. This time an 11-2 run pulled the hosts within three, 44-41, with 1:00 on the clock.
An exchange of buckets ensured and Alvernia sophomore Allee Barnes (Blooming Glen, PA/Pennridge) scored the final hoop of the half to send the Crusaders to the break with a 48-43 lead. Eastern hit 46 percent of its first-half shots making 17-of-37 attempts.
Eastern tied the score at 51-all just over two minutes into the second half, and Lutzkanin hit two more 3s over the next four minutes as the teams matched outputs for a 62-62 tie with 13:00 to play. Lutzkanin scored from long rage again to reach 27 points for the night cap a 6-0 burst. Eastern scored to stop the run, but Lutzkanin assisted on three straight buckets that sparked an 8-0 run and the Crusaders held 12 with 8:12 to play.
Eastern cut the lead to 10 twice, but go no closer as the Crusaders scored the final 12 points of the game, six from the free throw line, to post the 23-point victory.
Top-seeded Gwynedd-Mercy and #2 Cabrini will both receive quarterfinal byes on Monday. Alvernia and #4 Misericordia will host quarterfinal games with Misericordia hosting the winner of Thursday’s Neumann/Immaculata game and Alvernia hosting the loser.
Alvernia 92, Eastern 69
