WILMINGTON, Ohio – In the Ohio Athletic Conference regular season finale, the Baldwin Wallace University women's basketball team withstood a late charge by Wilmington College and hung on for a 78-67 victory on Hermann Court inside Fred Raizk Arena.

Sophomore guard Kasey Hughes (Springboro) led BW (15-10, 11-7 OAC) with 17 points, just two points shy of her career high. Junior All-OAC guard Hannah Fecht (Hilliard/Davidson) contributed 12 points of her own and also led the rebounding corps with seven boards.

Freshman center Faith Teaford led Wilmington (11-14, 6-12 OAC) with a game-high 21 points while junior guard Mackenzie Campbell was the game's second leading scorer with 20 points.

BW got out to a hot 7-0 start, forcing the Quakers to take a timeout at the 8:34 mark in an attempt to cool the Yellow Jackets down. Wilmington was able to recover slightly and finally found the bottom of the net after missing on its first three attempts. After BW took an 11-2 lead with 7:44 remaining, the Quakers went on a 10-3 run and came within two points of the lead. Junior Academic All-OAC guard MacKenzi Matthews (North Royalton) and freshman guard Gabby Garrett (Columbus/Bishop Watterson) hit back-to-back three-pointers to bring the Yellow Jackets back up by eight points, 20-12, and BW led 25-16 heading into the second quarter.

Fecht went on a personal 5-0 run to help BW open up a double-digit advantage early in the period. Meanwhile, Wilmington struggled to find a way around the Yellow Jacket defense as a combination of turnovers and missed baskets led to 20-point deficit, 40-20, off a Hughes three-pointer at the 5:22 mark. The scoring wealth was being spread around as seven different players hit field goals in the period and BW led 47-28 at halftime after outscoring the Quakers 22-12 in the quarter.

Wilmington came out of the locker room with a little fire power, outscoring the Yellow Jackets 9-4 over the first four minutes of the period and forcing BW to take a timeout to regroup. The Quakers continued to work its way into the game and only trailed by 12 points, 53-41, with 3:50 left in the quarter. Two free throws at the 1:03 mark brought Wilmington within nine points of the lead at 55-46 but Fecht and Hughes countered with back-to-back treys to bring the Yellow Jackets back up by 15 points and BW held a 61-46 advantage at the end of the third.

The Quakers did not back down in the final period, cutting the deficit back down to 10 points with 6:55 left in the game and continued to push the issue. Savannah Hooper hit a jumper at the 2:05 mark to bring her team within just five points, 70-65. Two different Yellow Jackets in sophomore guard Riley Schill (Sheffield Village/Elyria Catholic) and Hughes were clutch from the free throw line, however, as BW was able to hold off Wilmington's late charge and seal a 78-67 victory.

BW will enter the postseason as the No. 5 seed and will travel to Westerville to take on fourth-seeded Otterbein University on Tuesday, February 20, at 7:30 p.m. inside the Rike Center.