BEREA, OHIO -- Senior guard Jessica Butzer scored a game-high-tying 18 points as the Baldwin-Wallace College women's basketball team defeated Ohio Athletic Conference rival Otterbein College, 73-63, tonight (Wednesday, February 11, 2009) in the Rike Center in Westerville. The BW win was its season-high 13th straight.   

 

In addition to Butzer for the Yellow Jackets, sophomore guard Amanda Schroeder (Columbus Grove) scored 14 points and senior Academic All-OAC point guard Rachael Quiring (Brunswick/ Parma Heights Holy Name) scored 10. Junior Academic All-OAC center Ariel Brough (Powell/Olentangy Liberty) added a team-high nine rebounds. Otterbein was led by a game-high-tying 18 points from senior foward Carla Lewis, senior guard Laura Roth's 12 points, and junior forward Allison Huettel's 10.  B-W's cause was aided by outscoring the Cardinals 21-6 at the free throw line and committing just four second-half turnovers.

 

With its win, B-W improves to 17-5 overall and 12-3 in the OAC. Otterbein falls to 11-11 overall and 7-8 in the OAC.

 

In the first half, the Yellow Jackets jumped out to a 3-0 lead when senior three-time All-OAC guard Amanda Mondrach  (Parma/ Parma Heights Holy Name) grabbed an offensive rebound, scored, was fouled and made her free throw at the 17:54 mark.  Following an Otterbein three-pointer to tie the score at 3-3 with 16:35 left, the Yellow Jackets scored five straight points to take an 8-3 lead at 13:39 when freshman forward Mariah Strayer (Bellevue) grabbed an offensive rebound and scored.

 

Otterbein then outscored B-W 11-5 to take a 14-13 lead with 9:50 left when Roth made a layup.  After five lead changes and one tie, B-W took a 21-20 lead at the 6:23 mark when Butzer made a jump shot.  B-W then outscored the Cardinals 7-1 to build its largest lead of the half at 28-21 with 2:55 left when Schroeder made a layup. B-W led at halftime, 30-25.

 

In the second half, Otterbein opened with an 8-2 run to retake the lead at 33-32 with 16:05 left when Lewis made a layup.  The Cardinals extended their lead to 42-38 at the 12:39 mark when freshman guard Katie Stallard made a three-pointer.

 

B-W scored the next four points and tied the score at 42-42 with 11:51 left when Brough made one of two free throws. Following another tie and three lead changes, B-W regained the lead at 48-47 with 10:17 left when Schroeder made two free throws. The Yellow Jackets scored the next six points to rebuild their lead to seven points at 54-47 with 9:01 left when Butzer made a jump shot.

 

Otterbein scored three straight points to pull within 54-50 with 6:11 left when Huettel made a layup.  Undaunted, B-W scored five straight points to build its largest lead of the game at 59-50 with 4:55 left when Quiring made a three-pointer. Otterbein responded with four straight points to cut the deficit to 59-54 when Lewis made a jump shot at the 3:25 mark. After the two teams traded a pair of free throws each to make the score 61-56 with 2:44 left, B-W went on a 7-3 run to rebuild its lead to eight points at 67-59 when Brough made two free throws at the 1:08 mark. Otterbein did not threaten the rest of the way.

 

The Yellow Jacket women return to action this Saturday, Feb. 14 when they host Muskingum College in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium in the Lou Higgins Recreation Center in Berea at 3:00 p.m.  That game will be taped and then televised on a delayed basis by SportsTime Ohio (www.sportstimeohio.com) on Feb. 14 at 7:00 p.m., on Sunday, Feb. 15 at 12:00 noon and on Monday, Feb. 16 at 6:00 a.m. Previous athletic events broadcast on TV can be viewed at www.bw.edu/athletics/video/ .

 

All women's basketball games are broadcast by campus radio station WBW. The away games are available on the radio at 88.3 FM and via the WBW Internet web site at www.wBW.com. Home games are available only via internet.