TIFFIN, Ohio – The 24th nationally-ranked Baldwin Wallace University women's basketball team opened up Ohio Athletic Conference action in a tightly contested 74-64 victory over Heidelberg University inside Seiberling Gymnasium.

Freshman forward Lilly Edwards (Dublin/Coffman) led the way for BW (5-0, 1-0 OAC) as she notched the third double-double of her young career with 22 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. Junior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC guard Riley Schill (Sheffield Village/Elyria Catholic) and junior Academic All-OAC guard Kasey Hughes (Springboro) each hit double-digit scoring as well with 16 and 12 points, respectively.

Four Heidelberg (2-3, 0-1 OAC) players found double figures, led by sophomore guard Brooke Beamer with 15 points. Junior forward Maddy Crawford chipped in 15 points as well as a team-leading 12 boards. Senior guard Alyssa Riley added 12 points of her own while senior guard Aianna Wilson scored 10 points for the Student Princes.

Heidelberg opened up the game with a hot hand, making its first five field goals en route to an 11-4 advantage at the 7:21 mark. BW answered with a 6-0 run of its own to come within one point of the Student Princes and eventually took its first lead of the game, 14-13, off an Edwards layup with 4:55 on the clock. Both teams began trading baskets to close out the period until Hughes beat the buzzer with a layup to give the Yellow Jackets a 23-22 lead.

The second quarter continued much in the same fashion with neither team jumping out to a decent lead. With the game tied at 33-33 and 5:02 remaining, BW closed out the period with a 9-2 run, capped off by a Schill three-pointer in the final seconds, as the Yellow Jackets took a 42-35 lead into halftime.

Coming out the locker room, Heidelberg opened up the third quarter scoring with a 6-1 run, coming within two points of the BW lead. After a couple of traded baskets, the Student Princes nailed back-to-back three pointers to go up 49-46 with 5:08 left in the period. From that point on, Edwards started to dominate the game as she went on a personal 8-0 run to regain a five-point advantage for the Yellow Jackets, 54-49. After Heidelberg came down the floor for a three-pointer, Hughes countered with a trey of her own with 0:05 left on the clock for a 52-52 BW lead.

Two scoreless minutes passed to start the final period when senior Academic All-OAC guard Rachel Womeldorf (Lewis Center/Olentangy) finally opened up the scoring with a jump shot with 7:58 remaining. BW finally built up to a 10-point advantage with a Hughes free throw at the 5:21 mark but Heidelberg remained within striking distance, cutting the deficit down to seven points on two separate occasions. An and-one by Edwards with just over a minute left put the Yellow Jackets back up by 10 points and safely to an eventual 74-64 victory.

BW returns home on Saturday, Dec. 1, to host Muskingum University in OAC action at 3 p.m. inside Ursprung Gymnasium in the Lou Higgins Center.