Posted: Feb 26, 2015
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio – The Baldwin Wallace University women's basketball team held cross-town rival John Carroll University to just 11 points in the second half as the Yellow Jackets defeated the Blue Streaks, 64-51, in an Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament semifinal game in the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center.
BW (21-6), who handed John Carroll their first home loss of the season, advances to the OAC Tournament Championship game for the first time since the 2008-09 season. The Yellow Jackets will host the OAC Tournament Championship game agaisnt fourth-seeded Capital University on Saturday, February 28 at 3 p.m.
BW was led by sophomore guard Mackenzie Colombo (Strasburg) scored a team high 13 points, including nine in the second half. Colombo also grabbed a career-high seven reboumds and dished out a career-high tying six assists. Senior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC guard/forward Audrey Smolik (Strongsville) tallied 11 points and sophomore guard Sydney Clark (Parma/Lake Ridge Academy) scored 10 points.
The Blue Streaks (22-4) were led by sophomore All-OAC guard Katlyn Spahar with a game-high 17 points. Spahar scored five of John Carroll's 11 second half points. Senior guard Emily Taylor added 12 points all of which she scored in the opening period.
Smolik now has 1,052 career points and moved into 11th place on the BW all-time scoring list. She surpassed Yellow Jacket Hall of Famer Stephanie Fleming (1986-1990) and is seven points shy of Hall of Famer Erika Schultz (2000-2004) in 10th place with 1,059 career points. In addition, the win also was the 510th in the 25-year career of Head Coach Cheri Harrer (510-185).
The Yellow Jackets took an early 6-4 lead on three-pointer by Clark at the 17:01 mark. The Blue Streaks responded with 13-2 run to take a 17-8 lead on layup by Spahar at 12:02. John Carroll outscored BW 23-17 down the stretch and pushed its lead to as many as 20 points at 40-20 on jumper by Spahar at 1:22 mark.
The Yellow Jackets took some momentum into the halftime intermission as they scored the final five points, including a three-pointer at the buzzer by Feaster. BW trailed 40-25 at the break.
The Yellow Jackets held the Blue Streaks to one point through the first 11 minutes of the second half and used a 29-1 run to take a 54-41 lead on a layup by Lemmon at the 8:58 mark. Both team scored 10 points each down the stretch.
The winner of the 2015 OAC Tournament receives an automatic berth into next week's NCAA Division III National Tournament.
