By: Athletic Communications Student Assistant Joe Meyer '24
BEXLEY, Ohio - The No. 11 nationally ranked Baldwin Wallace University women's basketball team closed out the regular season with a 54-50 win over Capital University in an Ohio Athletic Conference contest on Performance Court inside the Capital Center.
BW (21-4, 14-4 OAC) was led by sophomore forward Bella Vaillant (Perrysburg), as she recorded a team-high 12 points and eight rebounds. Junior guard Emily Irwin (Pickerington/Pataskala Watkins Memorial) also cracked double figures, adding 12 points. BW's bench played an integral role in the all-around team win, outscoring Capital's bench 21-10, led by an eight-point, six-rebound performance by junior forward Kira Philpot (Stow/Stow-Munroe Falls).
Capital (13-12, 7-11 OAC) was led by sophomore guard Bri O'Connor, as she recorded a game-high 25 points and eight steals, accounting for half of the Comets' total scoring. Freshman forward Samaree Perkins added a game-high ten rebounds in the losing effort.
FIRST HALF
- Capital led 15-10 after a back-and-forth first quarter.
- Trailing 22-15 midway through the second quarter, BW battled back with a 7-0 run to tie the game at 22 with 3:08 left in the half.
- Junior forward Sylvie Sonneman (Jamestown/Greenview) sank a corner three as time expired in the first half, giving the Yellow Jackets a 27-26 edge at the break.
SECOND HALF
- Out of the break, the Comets retook the lead with a 9-2 run, going ahead 37-33 with 4:50 left in the third.
- Irwin buried a 26-footer at the third quarter buzzer, tying the game at 40 apiece heading into the fourth.
- With 4:55 to play, Philpot collected her sixth offensive rebound of the afternoon and converted the ensuing putback layup, pulling the Yellow Jackets within one (46-45).
- BW took a 50-48 lead with 2:31 play on a floater by junior guard Carolyn Wochele (Mentor), a lead that the Yellow Jackets would not relinquish.
- The Yellow Jackets shot 3-of-4 from the charity stripe in the closing seconds and came up with two critical stops on defense to seal the 54-50 win.
BW finishes the regular season with a 21-4 overall record and 14-4 mark in the OAC and will be the number three seed in next week's OAC tournament.
The Yellow Jackets return to the court on Tuesday, February 21, for a matchup against crosstown rival and sixth-seeded John Carroll University in the OAC Tournament Quarterfinals. The rematch of the previous three OAC tournament championship games is set for 7:00 p.m. in the Ursprung Gymnasium inside the Lou Higgins Center.