ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. -- The Elizabethtown College women's basketball team helped its winning cause Wednesday afternoon against Coast Guard by shooting 80 percent at the foul line in the second half to sure up a 69-61 win over the Bears in non-conference play. Lydia Lawson had a game-high 21 points for E-town. Veronica Christ and Marissa Emlet each finished with a double-double.

Elizabethtown (7-4) led the entire way, but Coast Guard (3-8) hung around for much of it. Britt Ritter gave E-town its biggest lead of the first quarter, seven, with a three from the left corner with nine seconds left. Kyra Hartman was able to beat the buzzer at the other end of the floor for the Bears and it was 16-11 after one quarter of play.

Lawson opened up the second with a trey to extend the lead to eight. Emlet grabbed one of her team-high 11 rebounds on the offensive glass to keep the possession alive. Roni Isenberg dished off to Lawson, who sank the three.

Later in the second, Angie Hawkins scored five straight points for Elizabethtown to push the lead to double digits for the first time. Rachel Christman found her freshman teammate down low for the bucket. A few possessions later, Hawkins drove inside, took the contact and made the basket before completing the three-point play with a good free throw. E-town led 26-15 with 3:58 left in the first half.

Coast Guard battled back over the final three minutes and capped off the quarter with Emma Puddington's three with six seconds to go. CGA scored the final six points of the half to cut a 12-point deficit down to six at halftime.

One Lawson's eight assists went to Mikayla Ruth. The junior dropped in a three for the first points of the third quarter for the Jays. Moments later, Zoe Riis-Fallica answered for the Bears with a three of her own. Micaela Martinelli took a feed inside and connected on the layup, two of her team-high 20 points in the game and E-town was only up by two, 32-30, with 7:16 remaining in the third.

Out of a timeout, Lawson found Ruth for the second time in the quarter. Ruth came off a screen down at the right block and Lawson inbounded right to her for the layup. Lawson recorded the assist on the third straight made field goal to start the period for the Blue Jays, finding Emlet from beyond the arc. Emlet's three-pointer sparked a 7-0 run that took a two-point game to a nine-point advantage for EC.

Down by ten, Martinelli scored the next seven points for Coast Guard and got the Bears back within five with 1:18 to go in the third. For the third consecutive quarter, CGA scored with little time remaining as Johanna Moolenaar got into the middle of the paint and connected on her running layup as time expired. E-town led 47-44 after three.

Isenberg, Christ, and Emlet all connected on shots to start the fourth for Elizabethtown as that three-point lead quickly grew to nine once again. Coast Guard came up empty on its first three possessions of the final quarter.

The Bears got as close as one on Brenna Farrington's jumper with 5:28 left, but Lawson found Christ on the fast break to provide a bit of breathing room. E-town forced 16 turnovers and produced 24 points from those turnovers. Lawson registered one of her game-high six steals and Emlet picked up the loose ball and took it coast-to-coast for the basket and forced Coast Guard into a 30-second timeout.

Down the stretch, Lawson sank six consecutive free throws and made 10-of-12 in the game to help Elizabethtown to its 69-61 win to start off 2019. The junior point guard ended with 21 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, and 6 steals. Emlet had 12 points and 11 rebounds and Christ recorded 11 points and 10 rebounds. Hawkins had a season-high 9 points off the bench.

Elizabethtown will host Scranton on Saturday, January 5, at 2 p.m. for a Landmark Conference contest.