ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. -- The Elizabethtown College women's basketball team got out to a 19-11 lead on Catholic in Wednesday night's Landmark Conference matchup at Thompson Gymnasium. The Cardinals made the game interesting in the second half, but the Blue Jays were too much and held off Catholic for a 75-64 win. Veronica Christ scored a career-high 27 points in the victory for E-town while Marissa Emlet and Mikayla Ruth each recorded double-doubles.

Elizabethtown (10-5, 3-2 Landmark), who have won at least 10 games for nine consecutive seasons and four straight under head coach Veronica Nolt, trailed through the first 2:57 until Christ's layup gave the Blue Jays their first lead. It quickly turned back over to Catholic (9-7, 1-4 Landmark) as Mollie Reynolds got inside for the bucket. Nearly a minute later, Lydia Lawson drained a three coming off Emlet's steal as E-town recaptured the lead at 9-7, and in the lead is where they would stay the rest of the game.

Reynolds' layup came at 6:46 of the first quarter. It wasn't until Maggie Rakowsky's layup with 1:30 to go in the opening quarter that Catholic had scored as they went scoreless for over five minutes. An Emlet three-pointer had the Jays ahead by ten, 17-7, with 1:44 left. Rakowsky's basket broke Catholic's scoreless drought and cut the lead to eight. Emma Powell hit a jumper with six seconds left in the first on Rachel Christman's assist and EC led 19-11 going into the second.

Cristin George and Emily O'Connor supplied some energy and points off the bench for the Cardinals. Once a nine-point Elizabethtown lead was down to one point, 23-22, after George capped an 8-0 CATHU run with the and-one play. She was fouled inside and count the basket as she sank the foul shot to get Catholic within a point.

Christ scored the next eight points of the game on a pair of foul shots and back-to-back threes. After Mollie Reynolds hit a three of her own, Christ assisted on Angie Hawkins' layup as the sophomore accounted for ten straight for the Blue Jays. Ruth, who seemed to collect all the loose ball rebounds along with Emlet, converted an and-one herself to push the Jays' lead to double digits with 2:07 to go in the half. Ruth had the final five points of the quarter for E-town, who led 38-28 at halftime.

Powell increased the lead to as many as 14 a little over midway through the third quarter, though Catholic got it back to single digits by the end of the quarter.

O'Connor and George again sparked the Cardinals, who all of a sudden were only down by five points with 7:15 remaining in regulation. George, who led Catholic with 16 points, drained another three to bring the Cardinals within four, 56-52. As momentum seemed to be shifting in Catholic's favor, Ruth calmly knocked down a shot from beyond the arc on the next possession to answer George's trey.

Amanda Johnson hit a three almost a minute later and it was a one possession game. Each time the Cardinals crept closer, the Blue Jays were able to respond and thwart the comeback bid. Emlet got her layup to fall 16 seconds after Johnson's three, and after Johnson missed another three, Emlet claimed the defensive board. At the other end, Ruth hauled down the offensive rebound on a miss and was fouled. Now in the bonus, Ruth canned both foul shots to get the lead back to a healthy seven.

Christ came through when her team needed her to as she connected on buckets on consecutive possessions after the Cardinals made two from the free throw line. In a minute's time, it went from a five-point game to nine. Lawson all but put the game out of reach as she drove inside, took the bump, got her shot off and it fell through the hoop. She went on to hit the freebie to make it 71-59.

George hit from distance once again, but with only 1:28 to go and still down nine, it wasn't nearly enough for Catholic to get back into it as E-town hit some foul shots down the stretch.

Christ shot 50 percent from the floor and was 4-for-6 from deep along with a 3-for-4 showing at the charity stripe. She also added seven rebounds. Ruth had 13 points and 11 rebounds while Emlet had 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Blue Jays. George led the Cardinals with a team-high 16 off the bench.

Elizabethtown will face Drew on Saturday, January 19, at 2 p.m.