LANCASTER, PA -- Lebanon Valley College's Jennifer Northcott scored 18 points, including 10 in the second half, as the Flying Dutchwomen survived for an 86-77 victory over York College of Pennsylvania in the championship game of the 2003 Franklin & Marshall College Women's Basketball Invitational.
Joining Northcott on the All-Tournament team were LVC forward Tamika Rogers, York guard Heather Kessler, F&M center Amy Abernathy (Sr., Far Hills, NJ/American School -Paris) and Washington & Jefferson guard Shawndra McDonald.
In the title tilt, Rogers finished with 10 rebounds and a game high 21 points as LVC rallied from a 10-point deficit of 18-8 at the 13 minute mark to carry a 41-37 lead into halftime.
The Flying Dutchwomen (2-0) expanded the lead in the opening minutes of the second half with a run to push the margin out to 61-48 with 11:51 left on the game clock. However, York (1-1) came back to cut the lead to three twice, but LVC closed out the game with nine free-throws, a pair of lay-ups by Erin Eaby and a jumper by Northcott to seal the win.
In the consolation game, McDonald, Leigh Sulkowski and Courtney Janczak broke into double-digits in scoring as the Washington & Jefferson Presidents came back from a 27-23 deficit at halftime to outscore Franklin & Marshall 37-19 down the stretch to capture a 60-46 victory.
For F&M (0-2), the contest was a matter of halves as the Diplomats built a 19-13 lead with 8:57 until halftime to hang on for a four point lead at intermission. Following lay-ups by forward Lauren Dodrill (Jr., Timonium, MD/Roland Park) and Abernathy to open the half and push the lead out to 31-23, the Presidents reeled off an 11-0 run to take a 34-31 lead with 11:33 to go as the Diplomats failed to tie the score or retake the lead for the remainder of the contest.
Forward Amy Hofmann (Sr., Wernersville, PA/Conrad Weiser) hit a jumper to slice the W&J lead to 34-33 with 10:35 left on the game clock. However, Janczak drained a three-pointer 40 seconds later to put the Presidents in front 37-33 and fire up a Presidents' offense which rattled off nine unanswered points over the next two minutes for a 43-33 lead with 7:44 on the clock.
Following a jumper by Kelly Williams (Sr., Forty-Fort, PA/Bishop Hoban) to move to within eight of W&J, the Presidents ran out to a 56-35 lead with three minutes left as McDonald arched in a trey to ignite a 13-0 run which sealed the win.
Courtney Tierney (Sr., Princeton, NJ/Hun School) led the way for F&M with 12 points and three assists, while Abernathy added 18 rebounds, nine points and two blocked shots in the effort.
The key to the game was turnovers as Washington & Jefferson held a 19-15 advantage in the game, including an 11-5 margin in the second half, as the Presidents' tallied 14 points off turnovers in the final 20 minutes of the game.
The consolation game loss marks the first time Franklin & Marshall College has lost both games of the F&M Invitational since the tournament's inception in 1984.
Further, it marks Franklin & Marshall College's first 0-2 start since the team fell at Juniata (72-37 L) and to Albright (78-55 L) in the Mayser Center to open the 1982-83 season.
Franklin & Marshall will continue the season on November 25 at Muhlenberg College to open the 2003-04 Centennial Conference schedule. Game time has been changed from 7:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. due to Muhlenberg having a men's game slated to begin at 8:00 p.m.
