ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. -- The moment wasn't too big for the Elizabethtown College women's basketball team on Thursday night against Catholic. The Blue Jays hosted their first-ever Landmark Conference semifinal game and beat the Cardinals for the third time this season, this time by a final of 61-43. Veronica Christ, Marissa Emlet, and Mikayla Ruth each poured in 17 points to help E-town advance to its first conference title game since 2000-01.

Lydia Lawson helped set the tone right away for Elizabethtown (19-6), scoring five quick points to get the Jays out 5-0 on Catholic (16-10). Lawson ended the first quarter with as many points as Catholic did as a team, six. The Cardinals were back within two at 7-5 on Sydney Poindexter's layup, but a three from Ruth, one of her game-high three, doubled the lead and it was all E-town from there.

The Cardinals couldn't stop the steady dose of offense provided by Christ, Emlet, and Ruth. Ruth finished off the first quarter with her second three-pointer and Elizabethtown took a commanding 18-6 lead into the second.

Emlet had the first five points of the second quarter for the Blue Jays, including a trey that put EC ahead 23-8. The Cardinals finally broke into double figures on Amanda Johnson's three at 6:51 of the second. That made it 25-11.

Poor shooting and turnovers plagued Catholic and the Jays took advantage. Lawson's steal turned into free throws for Ruth, who knocked down both. A possession later, Cristin George's missed three-pointer turned into a layup for Christ at the other end after Ruth found her sophomore teammate for the bucket down low. Ruth came up with the steal on CATHU's ensuing possession and sent Lawson the other way for the fast break basket. Elizabethtown led 32-13 as Catholic called for a 30 second timeout.

Though the Blue Jays had a slight dip in shooting percentage in the second half, they kept plugging along as the defense continued to do its job. Another 10 turnovers by the Cardinals over the final two quarters were converted into 12 points by E-town. They finished the game with a 24-15 advantage in points off turnovers.

Elizabethtown also got the job done at the free throw line. The Blue Jays shot a season-high .895 from the charity stripe, hitting 17 of their 19 attempts. Ruth was a game-high 8-for-9.

Ahead by a comfortable margin, E-town used the clock to its advantage and took possessions deep into the shot clock. Christ capped off the night with a three-pointer to beat the expiring shot clock with 1:07 to go. Lawson found Christ in the right corner with enough space to get the shot off before the buzzer rang.

Clare Marchese played a minute off her season-high with 19 and every one of them mattered for Elizabethtown. Marchese grabbed a season-high six rebounds off the bench.

The Blue Jays will compete for the ninth conference championship on Sunday at top-seeded Scranton. E-town returns to a conference championship game for the first time since winning the 2001 Commonwealth Conference title. The Royals and Blue Jays will tip off at 1 p.m.