BEREA, OHIO --  Junior center Ariel Brough (Powell/Olentangy Liberty) scored 14 points as the Baldwin-Wallace College women's basketball team defeated Ohio Athletic Conference rival Marietta College, 75-43, today (Saturday, February 21, 2009) in the Ban Johnson Arena in Marietta in its final regular season game. The defending OAC Tournament-champion Yellow Jackets open OAC tourney play at home on Tuesday, Feb. 24 against either John Carroll University or Otterbein College.

 

In addition to Brough, B-W was led by sophomore guard Amanda Schroeder (Columbus Grove) with 12 points. The Yellow Jackets had 12 players score in the game. Marietta was led by guard Nikki Driscoll with 10 points.

 

With its win, B-W improves to 19-6 overall and ends the OAC regular season schedule at 14-4. The Yellow Jackets have won 29 consecutive contests versus the Pioneers dating back to the 1994-95 season. With its loss, Marietta ends its season at 2-23 overall and 0-18 in the OAC and will not qualify for the OAC Tournament.  The Pioneers also end the season on a 21-game losing streak and extended their OAC losing streak to 21 straight dating back to last season.

 

In the first half, the Yellow Jackets came out quickly and scored the first 14 points of the contest, the final two courtesy of a layup by freshman forward Nancy Coulter (Washington Court House/Miami Trace) with 14:36 to play.  Marietta guard Amanda Carraher would get the Pioneers on the board with five straight points, to make the score 14-5 with 13:20 to play.  B-W answered with a 16-0 run over the next six minutes, with eight straight points from Brough, including a jump shot which made the score 30-5 with 7:21 remaining.  The Yellow Jackets would take a 37-11 lead into the half.

 

In the second half, BW extended its lead to 52-21 with 13:38 to play after a free throw by sophomore guard Courtney Ritzler (Fostoria/Hopewell-Loudon).  Marietta would cut the BW lead to 25 on three separate occasions in the second half, the final of which came with 8:00 remaining, when a Carraher layup made the score 59-34.  B-W led by as much as 35 on two separate occasions, the last courtesy of a layup by freshman forward Katie Heinlen (Bucyrus/Wynford) that made the score 75-40 with 1:47 to play.

 

The Yellow Jacket women open OAC Tournament play Tuesday with a first round game in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium in the Lou Higgins Recreation Center in Berea at 7:30 p.m. B-W has won two of the last four and five of the past 10 OAC Tournament titles to receive the OAC's automatic berth in the NCAA Division III National Tournament.

 

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 BW SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact SID Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu and Assistant SID Jeff Miller by telephone at 440-826-2780 and e-mail at jefmille@bw.edu. Fans can access the latest BW 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.