BOX SCORE

Madison, N.J. (Feb. 17, 2009) - Freshman Allison Toczylowski (Mantua, N.J./Clearview Regional) recorded her sixth double-double of the season by halftime and finished with a team-best 13 points and 12 rebounds to lead Alvernia University (17-7, 11-4) to a 78-55 win over FDU-Florham (11-13, 5-10) Tuesday evening in Freedom Conference women's basketball action at the Fergusen Rec Center.

Alvernia remains tied with Manhattanville, a 75-62 winner over King's Tuesday night, for second place in the conference.  The two will meet in a conference semifinal next Wednesday.  The Valiants hold the tiebreaker and will only have to match Alvernia's result on Saturday to host the semifinal.  The Crusaders need to beat top-seeded DeSales at home and have FDU knock off Manhattanville in Madison to earn the second seed.

On Tuesday in Madison Alvernia used defense and balanced scoring to notch its sixth straight win.  The Crusaders caused 20 turnovers and held the host Knights to 30 percent shooting in the second half and 35 percent for the game.

The Crusaders answered an early 17-12 deficit with an 11-0 run, and after FDU scored its first bucket in a five-minute stretch, junior Joanna Graber (Manalapan, N.J./Notre Dame) knocked down one of her three 3s to refuel mometum and the Crusaders pushed their advantage to 10 points, 21-31 on a Lil Snyder (Lancaster, Pa./Lampeter Strasburg) bucket.

Sophomore Kelli McIntyre (Orwigsburg, Pa./Blue Mountain) scored two possessions later to maintain the lead and it grew to 14 in the final minute of the half before an FDU bucket set a 37-25 score at the break in favor of the guest Crusaders.

Alvernia opened the second half with nine of the first 10 points capped by a McIntyre 3 to push the gap to 20 points, 46-26, and had it up to 28 midway through the second half when Snyder connected from long range.

The lead hit its largest point, a 29-point spread, on a Sam Carangelo (Lebanon, Pa./Lebanon Catholic) 3 with six minutes to play and the Crusaders settled for the 23-point win.

Snyder finished with a dozen points, Graber added 11, and McIntyre scored 10.  FDU got a game-high 18 points from Emily Cerankowski.

Alvernia closes the regular season with Saturday's rematch with the Bulldogs.  Alvernia gave DeSales its only conference loss of the season with a 68-66 win in Center Valley back in early January.

Alvernia 78, FDU-Florham 55