WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Senior Morgan Mader (Cresco, Pa./Pocono Mountain East) had a steal at the free throw line with 28 seconds left to prevent an opportunity for Moravian College to take the lead and junior Erica Lutz (Bernville, Pa./Hamburg) blocked away a tying layup in the paint with seven seconds left, as the Lycoming College women's basketball team made two huge defensive stands to secure a 72-69 win over Moravian College in the championship game of the Steel Club Classic at Johnston Hall on Sunday, Jan. 5.
 
The Warriors (9-4 overall) won the tournament with wins over two Division III powerhouses, beating William Paterson, coached by Erin Monahan, who has 493 career wins, 68-49, in the opening round, before holding off Moravian (7-5 overall), coached by 602-game-winner Mary Beth Spirk, in the championship. Both wins were Lycoming firsts over their opponents.
 
Senior Kayla Kline (Mifflinburg, Pa./Mifflinburg Area) earned the tournament's MVP award after posting 16 points and six rebounds in the championship, as she averaged 14.5 points and  10.5 rebounds in the tournament to lead the team to its first in-season tournament title since the team won their own Hoops for Hounds Classic in 2015. Kline also crossed 1,000 career points with a layup at the end of the third quarter, joining a group of 11 other Warriors in the club.
 
Freshman Kenzie Reed (Lancaster, Pa./Conestoga Valley) finished with eight points and seven rebounds in the championship game, helping her earn all-tournament team honors, averaging 7.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in the event after averaging 2.7 points and 1.7 rebounds entering the weekend.
 
Lutz finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds for her seventh double-double of the year, also notching two blocks, and Mader added 12 points, five rebounds and three steals. Sophomore Kelly Vuz (Blairstown, N.J./North Warren Regional) posted nine points, four rebounds and two assists and senior Akilah McFadden (Lewisburg, Pa./Lewisburg Area) added four points, four assists, two steals and a block.
 
Lycoming shot 39 percent in the game (27-of-69), including 55 percent (6-of-11) in the fourth quarter, while holding Moravian to 34 percent (22-of-64). The Warriors also hit 16-of-18 (89 percent) at the free throw line and held a 48-24 advantage in the paint.
 
Moravian opened the third quarter on an 8-2 run to take a 44-35 lead with seven minutes left, but the Warriors responded with a 17-1 run in the rest of the quarter that gave the team a 52-45 lead at the end of the quarter after Kline's 1,000^th-point sailed through the basket. Vuz started the rally with five straight points and Reed gave the team its first lead of the half with a jumper to make it 46-45 with 1:57 left in the period.
 
Lycoming continued to cruise early in the fourth quarter, with a layup from Kline with 7:43 left giving the team a 58-47 lead, but Moravian responded with nine straight points in the next two minutes to make it a two-point game. With 3:04 left, Maddie Capuano hit a pair of free throws to tie the game at 60, and from there the teams alternated buckets, tying the score four more times to enter the final minute.
 
With 44 seconds left, sophomore Allison Wagner (York, Pa./Central York) got a pass at the top of the arc with space and drove in unchallenged to the hoop. As she reached the foul arc, a Moravian player caught up with her for the foul and Wagner hit the front end of the two free throws to give Lycoming a 69-68 lead. After Mader forced a steal, she hit the back end of a pair of free throws, setting up Lutz' block with seven ticks left. Mader got the rebound and iced the game by hitting both her free throws before Moravian's Nadine Ewald hit a free throw with 0.3 seconds left to round out the scoring.
 
Moravian jumped out to a 16-8 lead in the first quarter before Lycoming cut it down to two points at 19-17 late in the quarter off a trifecta from Mader. Moravian continued to lead, though, and built it into a 33-21 lead with 4:09 left in the second quarter after an old-fashioned play by Capuano. The Warriors rallied with 12 straight points though, tying the game at 33 with 19 seconds left before Capuano closed the half with a 3-pointer, taking a 36-33 lead into the break.
 
Capuano finished with 30 points, two assists and two steals for the Greyhounds and Ewald added 20 points, 17 rebounds and two blocks.
 
The Warriors get back on the court on Wednesday, Jan. 8, when they face 18^th-ranked Albright College in MAC Commonwealth action at 6 p.m.