BRYN ATHYN, Pa. – A strong second half guided the Susquehanna women's basketball team to a 68-40 road win against Bryn Athyn in the final game before the holiday break.

The Crusaders are off to their best start since 2008-09 when they opened the season with an 8-2 record.

SU (7-2) out-scored the Lions (1-4) 44-19 in the second half after holding just a three-point edge at the midway point of the game.

Senior Jonaida Williams (Williamsport, Pa./Loyalsock) led the way with 18 points and a team-best five rebounds with Nikki Komara (Shamokin, Pa./Lourdes) contributing 15 points and four assists. Freshman Angie Schedler (Alexandria, Va./T.C. Williams) had 11 points off the bench.

The SU defense limited Bryn Athyn to a 31.5 field goal percentage and 28 turnovers, the latter of which led to 21 Susquehanna points. The Lions also did not help their cause with a 33 percent effort at the charity stripe.

It took nearly three minutes for the first points of the game to be scored when Bryn Athyn's Keana Schoenagle's layup made it a 2-0 game. The Lions went up 4-0 before the Crusaders put together eight unanswered points, including two treys from Williams.

SU led 10-6 on an Andreana MacIvor (Boiling Springs, Pa./Boiling Springs) layup at the 13:30 mark but Bryn Athyn made it a one-point game (12-11) on Sydney Labat's jumper with 10:49 remaining.

A 6-0 Crusader run pushed the lead to seven, 18-11, inside the eight-minute mark. The Lions remained within three (18-15) at the five-minute mark of the half and closed that gap to just one (20-19) with 1:15 left to play.

With the score 22-21 in favor of Susquehanna and just 17 seconds left, MacIvor was fouled and connected on both free throw attempts to give the Crusaders a 24-21 halftime.

The teams traded buckets to start the second half before SU opened up a nine-point lead (39-30) on Komara's layup at the 14:27 mark. Another layup from Komara kept the Crusaders in the lead by eight (43-35) as the half neared the 10-minute mark.

Ashley Burroughs (Parsippany, N.J./Parsippany) drained a three with 8:45 on the clock to give the Crusaders their first double-digit lead (46-35) of the night. It quickly turned into a 15-point game on Schedler's layup with 6:38 remaining.

Susquehanana proceeded to put together a 12 -1 run to up the margin to 22 points (58-36) with 4:51 left in the game and went on to the 28-point victory.

The team returns to the court on Dec. 31 with a 1 p.m. contest at Franklin & Marshall.