BOX SCORE

Reading, Pa. (Dec. 1, 2010) – A year ago the Alvernia-Albright game was over by the time the Crusaders hit 17 points. Wednesday night in the Commonwealth Conference opener the Lions showed a bit more pride and this time it took a second half run to decide the outcome.

The Crusaders (3-3, 1-0) ran off a 14-3 run early in the second half to open up a comfortable lead that remained to the conclusion of a 70-58 victory at the Bollman Center. Brittany Young (Columbus, N.J./North Burlington) scored eight of her 16 to fuel the run that finished with Alvernia up 39-25 and 13:50 left to play.

Julie Hahn (Warrington, Pa./Central Bucks South) hit a 3 from the top of the key with 5:41 left that stopped a mini Albright spurt which had cut the lead to eight, and the Crusaders sealed up their fourth straight win over the Lions and 16th overall in the series in 18 games.

Hahn finished with a game-high 19 points and Young matched her career high with 16 marking her sixth straight game in double figures. Angela Altemose (Pottsville, Pa./Nativity BVM) owned the post with 13 points and a game-high 18 rebounds. Allie Toczylowski (Mantua, N.J./Clearview Regional) was the fourth Crusader in double figures with 10 points. With her 11 boards, she and Altemose have both recorded double-doubles in back-to-back games.

Instead of the 17-0 run that opened last year's game the first four-plus minutes of Wednesday's game resembled a preseason scrimmage with 11 turnovers before Albright's Jenny Knoebel finally opened the scoring at 15:53 with a layup. The rest of the first half was back-and-forth. It didn't get much cleaner, but the Crusaders found a way to scratch out a four-point lead by the break, 25-21.

Hahn was the leading scorer at the break with nine and Altemose had already tallied 11 boards.

“It was a great second half,” said Alvernia head coach Kevin Calabria moments after collecting career win number 393.

Great may have been a relative term in comparison to the first 20. The Crusaders did manage to cut the turnovers down from 12 in the first to five in the second and vastly improved shooting to 50 percent from the floor.

“I thought that [Alisa] Greco (Long Valley, N.Y/West Morris Central) and Young provided a spark for us defensively,” continued Calabria.

After Albright cut the gap to 27-26 with five of the first seven points of the first half, Greco came up with a steal and Young scored her first of six straight as the Crusaders pulled away.

Alvernia returns home to continue the conference schedule Saturday hosting 2010 regular season champion Lebanon Valley College.

Alvernia 70, Albright 58