NORTH MANCHESTER, INDIANA --  Sophomore guard Jessica Lairson (Louisville) scored a team-high 11 points but the Baldwin-Wallace College women's basketball team lost to host Manchester (Ind.) College, 59-45, today (Saturday, November 19, 2011) in the championship game of the MC Bankers Classic.  Lairson was selected to the MC Bankers All-Tournament Team after scoring 29 points in the tournament.

With the loss, the Yellow Jackets drop their first game of the season and are 2-1 overall,  With the victory, Manchester improves to 2-1 and captures the tournament title,

In addition to Lairson, junior forward Nancy Coulter (Washington Court House/ Miami Trace) and junior All-Ohio Athletic Conference guard Jessica Carpenter (North Canton/ Hoover) each added eight points.  Senior forward Catherine Spisak (Sandusky/ St. Mary's Central Catholic) grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds. The Spartans were led by Jaimie Childress with a game-high 13 points.  

The Yellow Jackets opened the scoring when Coulter split a pair of free throws to take the early 1-0 lead at 18:25 in the first half. The Spartans then responded with a three-point shot by Kailey Honn at the 18:05 mark to take a 3-1 lead.  The Spartans outscored B-W 10-7 to take a 13-8 lead when Laine Mello made a layup at 12:22.

B-W would use a 7-0 run of its own, capped on a layup by Lairson at 8:46, to give the Yellow Jackets their second lead of the half  at 15-13.

After a 17-17 tie at 7:41, the Spartans would go on a 11-4 run over the next six minutes to extended the lead to a first half-high of seven points at 28-21.   B-W ended the first half on a 5-0 run to close the gap to 28-26 at the intermission.

In the second half, the Spartans outscored B-W 31-19 and would extend their lead to as many as 20 points at 53-37 with 4:19 left. B-W could only get as close as 14 points by the end of the game.

The Yellow Jackets will return home on Tuesday, November 22 when it will host Cleveland cross-town rival Case Western Reserve University in the Ursprung Gymnasium at 7:30 p.m.

FOR MORE B-W 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.bw.edu/athletics and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.

Photo Courtesy of Mark Selmek.