By: Ryan Sosic '19
BEREA, Ohio- The 24th-nationally ranked Baldwin Wallace University women's basketball team defeated Muskingum University 82-44 in their first home Ohio Athletic Conference contest of the 2018-19 season.
BW was led by junior Academic All-OAC forward Mary Schentur (Broadview Hts./Brecksville-Broadview Hts.) with a career-high 18 points off the bench in her first action of the season. Junior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC guard Riley Schill (Sheffield Village/Elyria Catholic) registered 13 points, four rebounds and four assists and freshman forward Lilly Edwards (Dublin/Coffman) chipped in 10 points and four rebounds. The Yellow Jacket's 82 points marks the highest scoring game of the season, with the bench contributing 48 points in the win.
Muskingum was led by sophomore guard Sam Filiaggi with 15 points and sophomore guard Emily Yeager recorded nine points.
The Yellow Jackets got out to an early score of 7-2 but Muskingum was able to cut the lead to 9-8 after a trio of layups. Three-point field goals by junior forward Kara Marshall (Copley/Akron Archbishop Hoban) and senior guard MacKenzi Matthews (North Royalton) extended the Yellow Jacket lead to 21-13, the biggest lead of the quarter, with a little over a minute remaining. Sophomore forward Sydney Diedrich (Chardon/Gilmour Academy) spilt a pair of free throws to make the score 22-16 at the end of the first quarter. The Yellow Jackets shot 44.4% from the field and the Fighting Muskies were right behind them, shooting at a clip of 43.8% from the floor.
After Muskingum scored the first basket of the quarter two minutes in, back-to-back Edwards makes put the BW lead back up to eight, 26-18, with 6:31 left in the first half. A quick 6-0 run helped the Yellow Jackets extend their lead to 11 with just over a minute remaining in the half. After a Fighting Muskies three-point make made the score 36-28, the Yellow Jackets scored the last five points of the stanza to go into halftime with a 41-28 lead.
An elbow jumper by Schill and a three-point make by junior guard Kasey Hughes (Springboro) forced Muskingum to call at timeout just two minutes into the quarter and gave the Yellow Jackets a 46-28 lead. BW headed into the fourth quarter with a 63-38 lead thanks to an offensive attack led by Schentur, who was able to splash a trio of three-pointers in the third.
Stifling defense by the Yellow Jackets in the fourth held Muskingum to their lowest scoring quarter of the game, allowing six points. The offense was led by Marshall and freshman guard Sydney Snyder (Kirtland) as both scored four points in the quarter to help BW walk away with an 82-44 victory.
The Yellow Jackets will be back in action when they travel to Case Western Reserve University on Saturday, December 8 at 2 p.m. in a non-conference matchup inside Horsburgh Gymnasium.
