TOWSON, Md. -- A close game at halftime was not close by the start of the fourth quarter as the Elizabethtown College women's basketball team outscored Goucher by 24 in the third quarter. E-town won its first Landmark Conference game of the season with an 81-48 victory over the Gophers, led by Lydia Lawson's game-high 25 points.

Nine turnovers by Elizabethtown (8-5, 1-2 Landmark) allowed extra possessions for Goucher (5-9, 0-3 Landmark), so while the Blue Jays shot close to 50 percent for the half, the lead was only one at the break.

E-town led for most of the first quarter and took a 14-9 lead into the second. Ahead by just one, Angie Hawkins knocked down a pair of foul shots and on a Gophers' miss the next time down the court, Veronica Christ grabbed the defensive rebound and started Lawson on the fast break. The junior finished off the play with a layup with 2:20 to go that gave the Jays the 14-9 lead.

Goucher started the second on a 7-0 run to take its first lead of the game at 16-14 on Alayna McFadden's jumper. Mikayla Ruth was good from down low on the next possession and the game was tied up at 16-16.

The teams went back and forth over the final minutes of the first half. The Jays held the lead, but each time it grew to three, the Gophers were able to answer to cut it back down to one. Christ blocked a shot with less than a minute to play in the second, Marissa Emlet grabbed the rebound and went coast-to-coast for the bucket to make it a 31-28 game with 40 seconds left. Goucher maintained possession on a missed three with 12 second to go and Nicole Wolard drained a jumper with two ticks on the clock to take the game into halftime at 31-30 in favor of EC.

Elizabethtown scored the first ten points of the third quarter, six of which came from Lawson. Ruth's layup put the lead into double digits for the first time for E-town and from there it only got bigger. Christ and Lawson combined for the next eight points and it was an 18-point game at 49-31 with 4:57 left in the third. Hawkins then scored seven straight points for the Jays. The freshman had a season-best 15 points in the game.

After Lawson's layup closed out the third quarter, a once one-point lead at halftime was up to 25, 62-37, to start the fourth as Elizabethtown outscored Goucher 31-7 in the third.

Roni Isenberg and Liz Hoffman helped push the advantage to 31 with a little over three minutes to go in the game. Hoffman assisted on Isenberg's bucket in the paint, two of the team's 56 points in the paint. Next possession, Lawson found Hoffman for the jumper. Britt Ritter added three points in the quarter on foul shots, including the final two points of the game for E-town.

Lawson and Christ combined for 41 points on 18-for-25 shooting as Elizabethtown shot a season-high 59 percent from the floor (34-for-58). Emlet and Hawkins were also in double figures for the Jays. Wolard led all scorers for Goucher with 14 points.

The women's basketball team heads up to Selinsgrove, Pa. on Saturday for a Landmark Conference matchup with Susquehanna on Saturday, January 12, at 2 p.m.