BEREA, OHIO -- Senior forward Katy Miller scored 14 points and led five Cardinals in double figures as the Otterbein College women's basketball team upset Ohio Athletic Conference rival Baldwin Wallace University, 74-70, today (Saturday, February 20, 2010) in the Rike Center in Westerville to deny the Yellow Jackets a share of the OAC regular season title.
With their win, the Cardinals improve to 11-14 overall and 8-10 in the OAC and ended a six-game losing streak to BW. With its loss, the Yellow Jackets are now 18-7 overall and 14-4 in the OAC and host John Carroll University in the first round of the OAC Tournament on Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m. in the Ursprung Gym in Berea.
In addition to Miller for Otterbein, sophomore guard Shea McCoy scored 13 points, freshman forward Rachel Snedegar came off the bench to score 12 and both sophomore guard Kristi Kotterman and senior forward Allison Huettel each had 10. BW was led by senior center Ariel Brough (Powell/ Olentangy-Liberty) with 15 points and a game-high nine rebounds and junior All-OAC forward Amanda Schroeder (Columbus Grove) had 12 points and eight rebounds. The key to the Cardinal victory was forcing 27 BW turnovers.
In the first half, Otterbein jumped out to a 10-4 lead at the 14:00 mark when Snedegar grabbed a rebound and scored. The Cardinals extended their lead to a high of 13 points at 26-13 at the 3:56 mark when Kotterman made a jump shot. BW then outscored OC 9-2 to close the half down by six points at 28-22.
In the second half, Otterbein again led by 10 points at 32-22 with 18:57 left when Huettel made a jumper. Undanted, BW outscored the Cardinals 12-2 to tie the score at 34-34 with 16:29 left when freshman guard Olivia French (Bucyrus/ Colonel Crawford) made a three-pointer.
OC then went on an 8-0 run to take a 42-34 lead with 13:31 left when freshman center Bourke Kelly made a layup. But back came the Jackets with seven straight points to cut the lead to one point at 42-41 with 11:29 left when freshman guard Jess Carpenter (North Canton/ Hoover) made a layup.
Otterbein then outscored BW 26-15 to open its largest lead of the second half at 12 points on four separate occassions with the last at 68-56 with 1:04 left when Miller made two foul shots. The closest BW would get is three points at 73-70 with two seconds left when junior guard Ali Stack (Vermilion/ Firelands) made a three-pointer. A McCoy foul shot with one second left sealed the Cardinal win.
Following Tuesday's first round of OAC Tournament play, the winner will advance to the Final Four on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 26-27 at the site of the highest remaining seeded team. The Championship Game is on Saturday at the same site at 3:00 p.m.
Media and fans can listen live to all Yellow Jacket men's and women's basketball games on campus radio station WBW, 88.3 FM, and via the Internet at www.wBW.com.
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 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.
