ANNVILLE, Pa. – The Albright Lions women's basketball team used a dominant third quarter to pull away the Lebanon Valley Dutchmen in a 71-54 road win on Saturday afternoon in MAC Commonwealth play.
 
With the win, the Lions improve 17-5 overall behind their 10th straight win and 12-1 in MAC Commonwealth play. Meanwhile, the Dutchmen drop to 13-9 overall after seeing their four game winning streak snapped, with an 8-5 record in conference play. Albright has won 13 of its last 14 games and maintains first place in the conference with three games left in the regular season.
 
Senior Nina Mazzarelli led all scorers on the floor with 20 points after matching a career-high six three-pointers made in a single game. Only one of her other field goals made was not a three-pointer, while adding three assists and two rebounds in the win. Classmate Alysha Lofton tallied her fifth double-double of the season behind 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and 10 rebounds. Senior Devan Horka nearly missed her third consecutive double-double after tallying 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and nine rebounds. Sophomore Zaria Mohamed continued her solid play off the bench with 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and eight rebounds.
 
Both offenses started slow to open the game, but Mazzarelli got the Lions going with back-to-back three pointers to help the Lions take a 7-2 lead at the 7:15-mark of the first quarter. Mazzarelli then hit her third three-pointer in the opening quarter to start a 7-0 Lions run to help them take a 14-6 lead at the 4:22-mark of the first quarter. Lebanon Valley then responded with an 8-2 run to close out the first quarter to cut the Lions lead down to 16-14 after one. Albright's defense then clamped down in a big way to start the second quarter as they did not allow the Dutchmen to score a point until the 4:04-mark of the quarter, while scoring the first 11 points of the second to take a 27-14 lead. Lebanon Valley cut the lead down to seven with an 8-2 run, but freshman Alli Marcus made a layup with a minute left in the half to give the Lions a 31-22 lead into halftime.
 
The Lions would then put away the game in the third quarter after they outscored the Dutchmen 29-8. Lebanon Valley scored the first basket of the quarter before the Lions would run off consecutive runs of eight and 15 to take a 54-26 lead at the 1:52-mark of the third. Albright held the Dutchmen without a point for just over five minutes of the third quarter, and would eventually hold a 60-30 lead headed into the fourth quarter. With most of the Lions bench in the starting lineup for the majority of the fourth quarter, the Dutchmen worked the lead down to as low as 13 points before the Lions worked it back up to 17 to seal the win. Mohamed would also score six of the Lions 11 points in the fourth quarter.
 
Albright shot 49.2 percent (30-of-61) from the field for the game after shooting 51.4 percent in the second half. The Lions went 6-of-16 from beyond the arc (37.5%) and 5-of-7 (71.4%) from the charity stripe. Albright held a 45-35 rebounding advantage which led to 12 second chance points. Meanwhile, the Dutchmen shot 33.3 percent (22-of-66) from the field after going just 25.7 percent in the first half. Lebanon Valley went 2-of-12 (16.7%) from three-point range, and 8-of-14 from the free throw line.
 
Becky Evans led the Dutchmen in scoring with 12 points and added three rebounds, two steals, and two assists. Caroline Scarff also posted 11 points and four rebounds for Lebanon Valley in the loss, while Veronica Venezia tallied a team-high nine rebounds.
 
The Lions will return to action on Wednesday, February 7th when they will host cross-town rival Alvernia in MAC Commonwealth play at 6 p.m.