UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio – The third-seeded Baldwin Wallace University women's basketball team's dreams of back-to-back Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament titles came up short as it was defeated by regular season champion and top-seeded John Carroll University by a final score of 83-71 on Mike Moran Court inside the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center.
BW (10-5) had four players score in double figures led by junior All-OAC forward Lilly Edwards (Dublin/Coffman) and junior Academic All-OAC forward Megan Scheibelhut (Avon Lake/Elyria Catholic) as the duo each scored 16 points. The 16 points was a career-high for Scheibelhut. Junior Academic All-OAC guard Sydney Snyder (Kirtland) chipped in 15 points. Senior guard Gabby Garrett (Columbus/Bishop Watterson) closed out her career by contributing 12 points.
John Carroll (13-2) had five players score in double digits led by senior All-American forward Olivia Nagy as she recorded a double-double with a game-high 22 points and game-best 13 rebounds. Senior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC guard/forward Nicole Heffington poured in 15 points. Senior All-OAC guard Abby Alder chipped in 14 points. Senior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC guard Dani Carlson and junior guard Hannah Bouchy each contributed 13 points.
The Blue Streaks came out of the gates in lightning fashion as it jumped out to a 12-0 lead on a layup by Nagy at the 5:37 mark. The Yellow Jackets got on the board when freshman guard/forward Sylvie Sonneman (Jamestown/Greenview) scored on a layup at 5:08. John Carroll pushed its lead to 20-5 on a Heffington layup with 51 seconds left. Freshman forward Kira Philpot (Stow/Stow-Munroe Falls) scored the final four points for BW as she scored on a layup and hit two from the charity stripe.
The Blue Streaks opened the second quarter on an 8-0 run to extend their lead to 31-9 on a layup by Bouchy at the 7:23 mark. The Yellow Jackets answered with an 15-3 run of their own to cut the lead down 34-24 on three-pointer from Snyder at 3:01. BW cut the lead down to 39-33 at the intermission as Garrett knocked down a trey with one second remaining in the opening half.
The Yellow Jackets cut the lead down to 39-36 on a Snyder triple just 19 seconds in the second half. John Carroll extended its lead to 58-47 on a layup by Nagy at the 4:02 mark. The Blue Streaks outscored BW 6-4 the remainder of the quarter at closed out the scoring at 65-51 on a pair of Adler free throws with eight seconds left.
The Yellow Jackets again cut into the lead when junior guard Emily Lyon (Medina/Highland) knocked down a three-pointer to make the score 65-56 at the 7:20 mark. The Blue Streaks answered with a 10-2 run to push their lead to 75-58 on a Nagy layup at 5:02. BW cut the lead down to 81-68 on a Scheibelhut three-pointer at the 1:51 mark. The teams would score only one more time down the stretch.
