Heading into Wednesday night's North Eastern Athletic Conference opener at Penn St. Berks, it had been 17 days since the Lancaster Bible women's basketball team had played thanks to a postponed game against Immaculata on Nov. 17 and the Thanksgiving holiday. Despite the long break, the Chargers were up to the task and defeated Penn St. Berks, 84-41 to improve to 2-1 overall and 1-0 in conference play. The Nittany Lions are now 0-4 overall and 0-1 in NEAC action. 

How it Happened: It was the Aubrey Folger and Katy Stover show in the first quarter as the two seniors combined for 19 of the team's 24 points. A jumper and layup from Folger on back-to-back possessions gave the Chargers an early 4-0 lead and after two scoreless possessions, Stover knocked down the first of her three 3-pointers to extend the advantage to 7-0 just 1:50 into the contest. The Chargers led comfortably for much of the opening quarter and junior Krissy Pennell gave Lancaster Bible its largest lead of the game with 37 seconds remaining as her 3-pointer put the Chargers ahead, 24-11. 

Freshman Mary Finkbeiner's three-point play 57 seconds into the second quarter stretched the Chargers' lead to 16 points and it grew from there as Lancaster Bible worked the ball inside and scored several baskets in the paint. Stover's layup with 27 seconds to play in the opening half gave Lancaster Bible a 47-20 advantage at the break as the Chargers shot 19-of-29 (65.5 percent) from the floor in the first half.

Lancaster Bible led by as many as 45 points in the second half, the second occurrence coming with 1:33 to play thanks to a 3-pointer from Kirsten Webster who played in her first game of the season.

By the Numbers: The Chargers shot 33-of-62 (53.2 percent) from the floor for the game, including 5-of-11 from beyond the arc...Folger finished with 26 points on 12-of-18 shooting and pulled down nine rebounds...Shanice Smith had her best game of the young season with 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting...Smith also grabbed a season-high 19 rebounds and added three steals...Stover finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and four steals...Pennell added four points and eight assists, while Marisa Jo Abts had four points, two rebounds and two assists.

The Coach Says: "It was great to be back on the court and play a game," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Katelyn Vanderhoff said. "It's been a while and our team was read to play against another team finally. I thought we did a pretty good job overall and moved the ball well which gave us a lot of good looks. I'm not very happy about the turnovers (Lancaster Bible committed 19 turnovers) and we will need to clean up our play for Saturday's game."

Extra! Extra!: The Chargers are now 11-2 all-time against Penn St. Berks and have won the past eight meetings...Folger is averaging 24 points per game over the first three games, almost seven points above her career average...Through three games, Lancaster Bible is outscoring its opponents 70-38 in the first quarter.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible continues NEAC play on Saturday as the Chargers host Bryn Athyn at 3 p.m.