LANCASTER, Pa. – A double-digit lead for Elizabethtown nearly evaporated in the final 16 minutes of Sunday night's Terry Greene Memorial Tournament championship game. Hood's Taylor McGaughey missed a game-tying 3-pointer in the final seconds, allowing the Blue Jays to come away with a 50-47 win and the tournament title for a second straight season.
Coming off a career-high 30 points in Saturday's win over Marywood, senior forward Taylor Alwine scored 16 more to lead E-town (2-0), including 12 in the first half. Krissy Pennell hit half of the Blue Jays' 10 field goals in the second half to finish with 14.
The Blue Jays built a 14-point lead by opening the game on a 16-2 run. Hood was down 10-0 before Briana Lee's jumper with 15:47 left got them on the board.
Alwine couldn't be stopped early, scoring 10 of Elizabethtown's first 16 points. Pennell added four and Emily Young hit a jumper.
For much of the first half, E-town's lead stayed above 10, but Hood made a late 7-2 run to close the half and tighten the score to 26-19.
Hood, 0-4 all-time against the Blue Jays coming into Sunday's meeting, extended its run coming out of the locker room as Rachel Wiley's layup made it 26-21. Two straight Pennell layups and another by Alyssa Aichele quickly sprung Elizabethtown's lead back to 11, 32-21, with 16:22 to go.
Wiley was silenced in the first half after picking up two fouls in the first three minutes. She made up for the lost minutes in the second, however, snatching up every rebound in sight and pulling the Blazers (1-1) within four, 35-31, with 12:06 left after consecutive layups. Fifteen of Wiley's game-high 16 rebounds came in the second half.
Pennell and Alwine combined to score the next four points for Elizabethtown, which would not allow its lead to dip under six until McGaughey's jumper 81 seconds from the finish.
The Blue Jays made things interesting down the stretch. Following the missed front end of a 1-and-1, Aichele blocked Lee with under a minute to play to keep it a two possession game. Hood retained the ball after Aichele's block, but Pennell turned a steal into a fast break lay in for a 48-42 lead.
Down 50-47 after Verkia Smith hit the first of two free throws, Hood tied up Alwine off the rebound on the second shot and the Blazers suddenly had a chance to send the game to overtime. A cross-court pass and pump fake got McGaughey a good luck from 3-point range, but her shot hit rim twice and bounced out.
The Terry Greene Memorial Tournament title is Elizabethtown's second in a row and fourth overall.
Alwine came up one rebound short of a double-double, settling for 16 points and nine rebounds. Freshman Marissa Gingrich hit her only 3-point attempt and had seven points off the bench. Gingrich's three was E-town's only one in the game on just four tries.
The Blue Jays were badly outrebounded, 55-36, by a Hood team which lost all four games against them by more than 10 points over the last two seasons. E-town beat the Blazers by a combined 33 points in two wins last year when both were members of the Commonwealth Conference.
To combat the rebounding numbers, Hood turned the ball over 30 times to the Jays' 11. Elizabethtown also had 10 steals in the contest. Alwine and Pennell each had four.
Hood received nine points from Smith and Alexis Andrukat, neither of whom started.
Emily Martin provided the blue and gray with six points, five rebounds and two blocks. The Blue Jays will take their home floor for the first time this season, Thursday, when Lancaster Bible visits for a 7 p.m. tip.
