BEREA, OHIO -- Muskingum College senior center Jessica McKenzie scored 28 of her 30 points in the second half as the Muskingum College women's basketball team defeated Ohio Athletic Conference rival Baldwin-Wallace College, 64-62, today (Saturday, February 14, 2009) in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium to end B-W's 13-game winning streak and knock the Yellow Jackets out of first place in the OAC.
Today's game was a "Pink Zone" game with all gate proceeds going to benefit the Susan G. Koman Foundation for Breast Cancer Research.
In addition to McKenzie for the Fighting Muskies, senior guard Tiffany Youel had 13 points, including the game-winning three-pointer with 36.58 seconds left, and a team-high eight rebounds. B-W was led by sophomore guard Amanda Schroeder (Columbus Grove) with 21 points and junior Academic All-OAC center Ariel Brough (Powell/ Olentangy-Liberty) had 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
With its win, Muskingum improves to 16-7 overall and 11-5 in the OAC and ended a 15-game losing skein to B-W. With their loss, the Yellow Jackets fall to 17-6 overall and 12-4 in the OAC.
In the first half, the Yellow Jackets jumped out to a 6-0 lead at the 17:20 mark when Brough made two foul shots. Muskingum came right back to outscore B-W 7-2 to close to within 8-7 with 12:59 left when freshman guard Suzanne Nichols made a three-pointer.
Muskingum continued its run and took its first lead at 13-12 at the 9:51 mark when freshman forward Amanda Dobbins made a short jump shot. The Muskie lead grew to four points at 16-12 at 9:30 when senior guard Tiffany Youel made a three-pointer. B-W then scored six straight points to regain the lead at 18-16 with 7:58 left when freshman forward Mariah Strayer (Bellevue) made a layup.
Muskingum regained the lead at 19-18 with 6:51 left when senior Jessica Lenhart made a three-pointer. Following another Muskie basket, B-W regained the lead at 23-21 at 3:14 when senior All-OAC guard Rachael Quiring (Brunswick/ Parma Hts. Holy Name) made two foul shots. A 5-2 B-W run to end the half gave the Yellow Jackets a 28-23 lead at halftime.
In the second half, Muskingum closed to 28-26 at the 19:16 mark when senior center Jessica McKenzie made a three-point play. B-W then received a three-pointer from 3-time All-OAC guard Amanda Mondrach (Parma/ Holy Name) and a layup from Brough to build its largest lead of seven points at 33-26 with 16:37 left.
Undaunted, Muskingum outscored BW 9-4 to close back to 37-35 when Nichols nailed her second trey of the day at the 14:01 mark. But B-W came right back on a 9-4 run to rebuild its lead to seven points at 46-39 with 10:46 left when Schroeder made two foul shots.
On the strength of two McKenzie baskets and four more free throws with the last two at the 7:26 mark, Muskingum took its first lead since the 6:51 mark of the first half at 47-46. Brough answered right back and gave B-W a 48-47 advantage at 7:10. With the shot clock ready to expire, Lenhart hit a jumper over the outstretched hand of Brough for a 49-48 Muskie lead with 5:58 left and McKenzie extended the lead to three points at 51-48 with 5:31 left.
Following a Butzer foul shot to make it 51-49 with 5:11 left, McKenzie sandwiched two baskets around two Schroeder foul shots to increase the lead to 55-51 with 3:57 left. A basketball by Mondrach brought BW to within 55-53 with 3:17 left. McKenzie made it a four-point game again at 57-53 with a basket at 2:57. Schroeder again made it a two-point game at 57-55 with two more free throws at 2:41.
A foul shot by sophomore forward Heidi Lynch at 1:41 gave Muskingum a 58-55 lead. B-W made it a one-point game at 58-57. A McKenzie foul shot at 1:08 pushed the lead to 59-57, but Schroeder gave the lead back to B-W with a three-point play with 51.52 seconds left. The Muskies got the lead right back when Youel canned a long-range triple to make the score 62-60 with 36.58 seconds left.
Youel then gave Muskingum a three-point lead at 21.13 seconds with a foul shot and McKenzie sealed the win with a foul shot with 9.36 seconds left.
Today's game was taped by S & S Video Productions and will be shown on a delayed basis by SportsTime Ohio (www.sportstimeohio.com) tonight at 7:00 p.m., tomorrow, Sunday, Feb. 15 at 12:00 noon and on Monday, Feb. 16 at 6:00 a.m. In addition, previous B-W athletic events broadcast on television can be viewed at www.bw.edu/athletics/video/ .
The Yellow Jacket women return to action this Wednesday, Feb. 18 when they host OAC and Cleveland cross-town rival John Carroll University in another important OAC game in the Ursprung Gym at 7:30 p.m. The game also will be B-W's second straight "Pink Zone" game with all gate proceeds going to benefit the Susan G. Koman Foundation for Breast Cancer Research.
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.
FOR MORE SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu. Fans can access the latest B-W athletics information at www.BWyellowjackets.com and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.
