FRANKLIN, INDIANA  – Senior forward Nancy Coulter (Washington Court House/Miami Trace) made a layup with 29 seconds left to break an 84-84 tie as the Baldwin Wallace University women's basketball team defeated host Franklin College, 86-84, in the championship game of the Franklin Invitational at the Spurlock Center Gym. 

With the victory, the Yellow Jackets are now 2-0 overall and face Cleveland nonleague and cross-town rival Case Western Reserve University on Tuesday night in University Circle at 7:30 p.m. With its loss, Franklin, who beat Spalding (Ky.) University, 59-56, last night, falls to 1-1 overall.

Coulter, who came off the bench, took a pass from senior transfer guard Amber Boyd (Middleburg Heights/Regina) to score the winning points. BW then withstood a pair of chances by the host to tie the game in the final seconds. Coulter scored a career-high 17 points as she canned 7-of-9 field goal attempts and 3-of-3 foul shots. She also had five rebounds, an assist amnd two blocked shots in 17 minutes of action.

In addition to Coulter for BW, freshman Alissa Munro (Mansfield/Lexington) also came off the bench to score 14 points, including making 3-of-4 three-pointers for the game and 7-of-8 in the two-day tourney. Sophomore guard Audrey Smolik (Strongsville) also had 12 points and made both of her three-point attempts.  Coulter and Munro were selected to the all-tournament team. Franklin was led in scoring by sophomore center Lindsay Dall with a game-high 21 points.

Keys to the BW win included making 54.4 percent of its field goals (31-of-57), including 50% of its three-pointers (8-of-16).

The Yellow Jackets would open up the game with a 5-0 lead at the 18:54 mark after a made jumper and three-pointer Smolik. Franklin would then score their first point of the game off a made free throw by senior center Jess Prewett.  The Jackets then scored six straight points to lead 11-1 at the 16:58 mark on a jumper by All-Ohio Athletic Conference forward Jessica Lairson (Louisville).  The Grizzlies would fight back and tie the game at 19-19 with 11:25 left in the half when Prewett scored. 
 
The Yellow Jackets would regain the lead and increase their advantage to 10 points at 36-26 with 6:42 to play on a pair of free throws from freshman guard Janaya Feaster (Akron/Archbishop Hoban).  Franklin outscored BW 11-9 over the remainder of the half to trail 45-37 at the intermission.

The Yellow Jackets opened the second half on a 4-0 run with scores from Lairson and junior center Lexi Rohrbach (Tiffin/Columbian) to take a 49-37 lead with 19:14 left. The Grizzlies would follow with a 6-0 run of their own to cut the lead back to six points at 49-43 at the 17:40 mark when junior guard Krista Schott made a layup. 

BW outscored 11-4 to increase its lead to 13 points at 60-47 with 15:32 left when freshman guard She'Kiera Brooks (Stow/Woodridge) made a layup. The Grizzlies cut the BW lead to two points at 60-58 with an 11-0 run capped by a pair of free throws from sophomore guard Katie Dale at the 12:40 mark.

BW went on its own 8-0 run to rebuild a 10-point lead at 68-58 with 10:44 left when Smolik made a three-pointer. But Franklin went on an 8-1 run to cut the lead back to three points at 69-66 with 6:33 left when Dall made two foul shots. The lead grew to five points at 75-70 with 5:04 left when Coulter countered with two charity tosses.

BW again increased its lead to eight points at 81-73 with 3:05 left when Boyd made a pair of foul shots. Then Franklin went on a 11-3 run to tie the game at 84-84 with 49 seconds left when freshman forward Nicole Thompson made two foul shots. That led to Coulters' winning basket with 29 seconds left. Franklin had two more chances to win the game, but missed its shots.

BW is back in action on Tuesday, Nov. 20 when it travels cross-town to face nonleague rival Case Western Reserve University at 7:30 p.m. The Yellow Jackets play their first six games away from home and open the home schedule with an Ohio Athletic Conference game on Saturday, December 15 versus Wilmington College in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium in the Lou Higgins Center at 3:00 p.m.

FOR MORE BW SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu. Fans can access the latest BW athletics information at www.bwyellowjackets.com and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.