The Lancaster Bible women's basketball team advanced to its third North Eastern Athletic Conference Final in four seasons as the Chargers defeated Morrisville State, 74-58 on Saturday at Horst Athletic Center. The victory is Lancaster Bible's 16th straight which sets a new program record and improves the Chargers to 23-3 this season. Morrisville State ends its season with a record of 19-8. Lancaster Bible will host SUNY Polytechnic in Sunday's NEAC Final as the Wildcats won the night's second semifinal by a score of 65-55 over Gallaudet. 

How it Happened: On Saturday, the Chargers jumped out a 15-1 lead over the first 4:24 of the contest as five of the first six buckets from Lancaster Bible came via the layup. Junior Krissy Pennell had three assists on the five layups as the Chargers jumped on the Mustangs. Lancaster Bible eventually led 20-7 after the first quarter and held Morrisville State to just three buckets in the first 10 minutes. 

After Lancaster Bible maintained its double-digit lead for the first five minutes of the second quarter, the Mustangs began to chip away at their deficit and used an 8-2 run to cut Lancaster Bible's lead to four at 27-23. Lancaster Bible extended its lead back to seven at 30-23, before Morrisville State's Jordan Anderson hit a jumper as time expired to cut Morrisville State's deficit to 30-25 heading into halftime.

The teams traded baskets for much of the third quarter as Lancaster Bible led 43-38 with 3:45 to go in the third after a layup from the Mustangs' Haley Kilmartin. Lancaster Bible used its own 8-2 run over the next 2:05 to take a 51-40 lead as Pennell hit two 3-pointers over three possessions for the Chargers. Morrisville State once again battled back and Caitlin Duree's layup with two seconds to play in the third quarter trimmed the Mustangs' deficit to seven at 53-46.

Lancaster Bible could not pull away from Morrisville State early in the fourth quarter and led by just eight with 7:52 to play, 58-50. A 12-4 run by the Chargers finally put the Mustangs away as senior Katy Stover capped the run with her fifth 3-pointer of the game to give Lancaster Bible a 70-54 lead with 4:05 remaining.

By the Numbers: Lancaster Bible shot 25-of-59 (42.4 percent) from the floor, including 9-of-18 from 3-point range...Morrisville State was 20-of-55 (36.4 percent) from the field, but just 4-of-14 from beyond the arc...Senior Aubrey Folger paced the Chargers with 21 points, while fellow senior Shanice Smith had 15 points and a game-high 19 rebounds...Stover finished with 15 points, all 15 coming via five 3-pointers, while Pennell had 14 points, nine assists and four rebounds...Junior Kirsten Webster added five points, five assists, four rebounds and three steals...Kaitlyn Griffin had a team-high 14 points and seven rebounds...Lancaster Bible had just 10 turnovers and scored 28 points in the paint.

The Coach Says: "We definitely were ready to go today," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Katelyn Vanderhoff said. "I loved our focus and intensity from the start. We knew that defense was going to be the key factor and we were able to maintain it for most of the game."

More on Saturday's win and Sunday's Final..."I thought Katy had a great all-around game and Krissy really stepped up and hit some big shots," Vanderhoff said. "We need to have the same focus tomorrow. SUNY Poly is a tough team and we need to play our type of game and stick with the game plan. We are very excited to play for the NEAC championship in front of our home fans."

Extra! Extra!: Lancaster Bible's only NEAC regular season loss this season came at the hands of Morrisville State, 77-70 in overtime on Jan. 16...Lancaster Bible is now 5-2 all-time against Morrisville State...Morrisville State defeated Lancaster Bible in last season's NEAC Semifinals...The Chargers' 16 straight wins are a new program record and break the old record of 15 set by the 2013-14 team...Lancaster Bible defeated NEAC Final opponent SUNY Polytechnic, 78-69 on Feb. 12 at Horst Athletic Center...Sunday will be the third time the Chargers have hosted the NEAC Final...Lancaster Bible defeated Keuka, 67-63 in the 2013 NEAC Final, before falling to Wells, 67-60 the following season. 

Up Next: Lancaster Bible will look to win its first NEAC title since 2013 when the Chargers host SUNY Polytechnic at 2:30 p.m...The game can be seen live here: LIVE VIDEO