Annville, PA – For the majority of Wednesday's contest against the Lebanon Valley Dutchmen the Falcons struggled to get their offense going. Trailing 34-42 heading into the fourth-quarter, the Falcons began their comeback closing the gap to as few as two at 56-54 in the final minute.
 
A missed layup by the Falcons with 11 seconds left would have tied the game, but it went off the bottom of the rim and the Dutchmen grabbed the rebound. Two free throws by Lebanon Valley iced the game and The Dutchmen came away with the 58-54 victory.
 
Kaitlyn Hoff led the Falcons with 12 points. Dominique Seamon added 10 points in the loss.
 
The game opened at a pedestrian pace with both teams struggling to find the bottom of the hole. Just over eight minutes into the game the Dutchmen led 7-6. Lebanon Valley and Messiah's Libby Timmer traded layups in the final minute of the quarter. At the end of the first-quarter the Falcons trailed 9-8.
 
The second-quarter was just as slow, if not slower than the first. The Dutchmen collected the first two buckets of the quarter to take a 13-8 lead.  Alecia Rohrer put an end to the quick run with a layup assisted by Gillian Glackin. A minute later, Dominique Seamon made a layup to cut the deficit to 13-12. Over the final 5:30 of the half, the Dutchmen went on a 9-2 run to take a 22-14 lead into the half. The Falcons' only bucket during that stretch was collected by Rohrer on a layup with 1:23 remaining in the half.
 
Both teams shot exceptionally poorly in the first-half. The two teams combined to shoot 15-48 (31.25%) from the floor and 0-7 from beyond the arc.
 
The second-half was a completely different story. After the break the two squads shot a combined 24-53 (45.28%) from the floor and 6-16 (37.50%) from downtown contributing to 76 total points compared to 36 in the first 20 minutes.
 
After the intermission Lebanon Valley hit a quick three and a pair of free throws to build their lead to 13 points just over a minute into the second-half. The Dutchmen grew the lead to as many as 14-points with 6:48 remaining in the quarter and led the majority of the quarter by 10-plue points. The highlight of the quarter for the Falcons was a stretch of three consecutive layups by Kaitlyn Hoff, Jen Fairbanks, and Hoff again to cut the lead to 33-25 with 4:56 remaining in the quarter.
 
Kristen Smoluk hit a jumper from the right side as the buzzer for the quarter sounded to cut the deficit to 42-34.
 
Just seconds into the fourth quarter Smoluk continued her hot shooting with a three to cut the lead to five. Three minutes later Smoluk struck again, this time it was a jumper assisted by Seamon that cut the lead to three at 45-42. Lebanon Valley's Kiely Chaklos and Seamon traded threes over the next 30 seconds to keep the game a three-point contest.
 
Over the final five minutes, the Dutchmen tried to pull away, but for every bucket Lebanon Valley had the Falcons had an answer. With under two minutes to play, the Falcons trailed by five, Jen Fairbanks stepped up and knocked down a three – only her seventh of the season – to bring the Falcons within two-points, the closest they had been since it was 13-12 with 5:53 left in the first-half.
 
After two free throws by the Dutchmen and a layup by Hoff the lead remained two for Lebanon Valley. The Dutchmen missed a pair of free throws to give the Falcons a chance in the final seconds. With 11 seconds left, the Falcons missed a layup off an inbounds play and the Dutchmen converted their free throws down the stretch to come away with the 58-54 victory.
 
With the loss the Falcons snap an eight-game win streak that dated back to mid-December and fall to 12-5 overall and 6-2 in the conference. Tonight's game wraps up the first half of the MAC Commonwealth season, the Falcons will look to avenge an early season loss to the Stevenson Mustangs next Wednesday when they travel to Owings Mills. Game time is set for 6:00 p.m.