BEREA, OHIO -- The eighth-ranked Baldwin-Wallace College women's basketball team lost to host and fourth-ranked Kean (N.J.) University, 81-68, today (Sunday, November 16, 2008) in the championship game of the Kean Tipoff Tournament in Union, New Jersey.  With its loss, B-W is 1-1 overall and Kean improves to 2-0 overall.

 

B-W was led by sophomore guard Amanda Schroeder (Columbus Grove) with a career-high 21 points and she made 11-of-12 foul shots. She was joined in double figures by senior three-time Ohio Athletic Conference guard Amanda Mondrach (Parma Heights/ Holy Name) had 11 points and sophomore guard Courtney Ritzler (Fostoria/ Hopewell-Loudon) had 10.

 

For the game, B-W made 35.1 percent of its field goal attempts (20-of-57), including 38.1% of its three-pointers (eight-of-21), and 83.3% of its foul shots (20-of-24).

 

In the first half, Kean jumped out to a quick 12-6 at the 14:08 mark before B-W battled back to finally take its first lead of the half at 25-24 with 3:18 left when junior transfer guard Diandra Bremond (Cleveland John F. Kennedy) made a layup. Following a Kean basket, senior point guard Rachael Quiring (Brunswick/ Parma Heights Holy Name) canned a three-pointer at the 2:26 mark to give B-W a 28-26 lead. Then Courtney Ritzler came off the bench to score seven straight Yellow Jacket points and counter a Kean basket to give B-W its biggest lead at 35-28 with 38 seconds left. A Kean triple with 17 seconds left made the score 35-31 at the intermission.

 

In the second half, B-W had leads of 40-33 with 18:45 left when Mondrach made a traditional three-point play and then 53-46 with 14:30 remaining when Quiring made a three-pointer. Following a five-point run by Kean to cut B-W's lead to 53-51 with 12:45 left, Courtney Ritzler canned another three-pointer to push the lead back to 56-51.

 

Then another five-point run by Kean tied the game at 56-56 with 10:40 left. B-W countered and regained the lead when Schroeder made two foul shots for a 58-56 lead with 10:27 left. B-W led for the last time at 61-60 with 7:46 left when freshman forward Mariah Strayer (Bellevue) made a pair of foul shots.

 

A pair of Kean foul shots gave the Cougars a 62-61 lead. Then Kean's junior guard Danielle Brown made two straight three-pointers to build its biggest lead of the half at 68-61 with 6:10 left. The closest B-W would get was 73-68 with 2:38 left when junior forward Serena Farage (Medina/ Buckeye) made two foul shots. The Cougars then closed on an 8-0 run to make what was a very close game look like a deceivingly easy win.

 

Following the championship game tomorrow, the Yellow Jackets are idle until Saturday, Nov. 29 when they travel to Washington, Pennsylvania and play Washington & Jefferson College at 3:00 p.m.  The first home game is on Tuesday, December 2 when they host traditional rival Wittenberg University in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium of the Lou Higgins Center. Fans are reminded that they can listen to all Yellow Jacket basketball games on campus radio station WBW, 88.3 FM, and via the WBW Internet web site at www.wBW.com.