Senior forward Alexandra Blair records a triple-double as the Moravian College women's basketball team defeated Elizabethtown College, 67-57 Tuesday night. Blair tallied a career-high 12 blocks to go with her 14 points, ten rebounds and five assists in Moravian's first-ever recorded triple-double.
Moravian would get on the board first with a pass in between two defenders from Blair to freshman forward Alexis Wright, who connected on the layup. The Blue Jays would get that bucket back, but senior guard Hilary Murray would answer with a three-pointer. Murray would hit the easy layup on the next possession. Then Blair would connect on two free throws, and hit a jumper from the corner on the next two possessions, as Moravian would take an 11-2 lead with 15:35 remaining in the first half.
The Greyhounds would continue to roll with a jumper from sophomore forward Laura Jordan then a layup from sophomore guard Katie O'Rourke to go up 16-2 with just over 14 minutes remaining. Junior guard Nadine Yunginger would end the scoreless drought for the Blue Jays with a three-pointer to make the score 16-5 with 12:45 left in the first half.
Elizabethtown would cut its deficit to seven points after three's from Yunginger and sophomore guard Kendra Beittel, and a jumper from freshman forward Taylor Alwine. Junior guard Amanda Kreuder hit a deep jumper from the corner to put Moravian back up 22-13 with 8:20 remaining in the half. Two minutes later, Murray nailed a three as the Hounds went up 25-14 with 6:43 to go in the first half.
The Greyhounds would continue to put the pressure on the Blue Jays for the remainder of the half while going up by a high of 15 points after O'Rourke hit a layup to make the score 35-20 with 1:26 left in the half. Moravian would end up taking a 13 points lead at 38-25 into the locker room.
Blair would start the second half with a quick layup to put the Hounds back up by 15. The Blue Jays would start to fight back with layups from sophomore guard Taylor Kreider and then a three from senior guard Stephanie Ellwood to bring Elizabethtown within seven points at 41-34 with 16:29 remaining.
With a jumper from Jordan and back-to-back jumpers from sophomore guard Danielle Brogan, the Greyhounds pulled back ahead by 13 points with 9:40 left in the game. With five minutes to go in the second half, Elizabethtown found itself within striking distance after two straight jumpers from Beittel, as they were down 51-45 at this point. That was as close as Moravian would let the Blue Jays get, as they would go on a 6-0 run to pull ahead 57-45 with 3:42 remaining. The Greyhounds would hold that lead the rest of the way as they went onto win 67-57.
Wright was a point shy of a double-double for Moravian, finishing with nine points and ten rebounds while Murray had ten points, five assists and two steals. Keuder finished with ten points, four assists and two steals while O'Rourke scored seven points and brought down five rebounds to go with her three steals. Jordan contributed eight points while Brogan put up seven points.
Leading the way for the Blue Jays was Kreider with 14 points and eight rebounds while Yunginger put up 14 points, five assists and five steals. Beittel scored 13 points to go with her five boards while Ellwood had eight points, five boards and three steals.
Moravian out rebounded Elizabethtown 54-46, and out blocked them 18-10. Moravian also shot 39.7 percent from the field while Elizabethtown shot 28.6 percent from the field.
The Greyhounds return to action Thursday, December 8th as they travel to The College of New Jersey for a non-conference contest. The game is scheduled for 6 p.m.
