PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Sophomore guard/forward Alissa Munro (Mansfield/Lexington) scored a career-high tying 17 points but the Baldwin Wallace University women's basketball team fell to Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) University by a final score of 77-73 in its final non-conference game in the Skibo Gymnasium. The game was originally scheduled for November 26 but was postponed on two occasions due to inclement weather.
In addition to Munro for BW (9-3), junior All-Ohio Athletic Conference guard Audrey Smolik (Strongsville) tallied 16 points and junior guard Shari Mangas (Leipsic) contributed 10. Carnegie Mellon (9-2) had four players score in double figures led by Lisa Murphy with a game-high 28 points, Jacquie Shaw tallied 19 points, Liza Otto recorded a double-double as she scored 13 points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds and Gabrielle West contributed 10 points.
In the first half, the Tartans jumped out to an early 4-0 lead on a layup by Shaw with 19:09 remaining in the opening half. After a bucket by senior All-OAC guard Jessica Lairson (Louisville), Carnegie Mellon went on a 7-0 run to take an 11-2 lead on a layup by Shaw at 15:50.
The Yellow Jackets answered back with a 10-2 run to cut the lead down to one point at 13-12 on a pair of three-pointers by Munro and Smolik and a layup by Rohrbach with 13:07 remaining. Over the next five minutes, the two teams battled back and forth but the Tartans held a 27-21 lead when Murphy scored on a layup at 7:48.
BW would outscore Carnegie Mellon, 14-13, over the remainder of the half but trailed the Tartans 42-35 at the intermission.
The Yellow Jackets opened the second half on a 5-0 run and cut the lead down to 42-40 on a triple by Smolik and a jumper by Mangas (Leipsic) with 18:23 remaining. The Tartans responded with a 10-5 run to take a 52-45 lead on a three-pointer by Gabrielle West at 14:33.
BW answered back with a 16-6 run to take its first lead of the game at 61-58 as Lairson spilt a pair of free throws with 7:36 remaining. Carnegie Mellon went on a 6-2 run to regain the lead as at 64-63 on a layup by Otto at the 6:12. The Yellow Jackets tied the game back at 64-64 when senior forward Lexi Rohrbach (Tiffin/Columbian) split a pair of free throws with 5:09 left.
BW would take the lead at 69-68, the fourth lead change in the last two minutes, before the Tartans went on a 6-0 run to take a five point lead at 74-69 on a layup by Murphy at 1:52. The Yellow Jackets would cut the lead down to two points at 74-72 when Mangas converted a traditional three point play with 1:23 left in regulation. The Yellow Jackets would not come any closer than three-points at 76-73 when Smolik split a pair of free throws at seven seconds.
BW is back in action on Saturday, January 11 when it hosts Marietta College in an OAC game in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium inside the Lou Higgins Center at 3 p.m. BW also hosts OAC and Cleveland cross-town rival John Carroll University in the Ursprung Gym on Wednesday, January 15 at 7:30 p.m.
FOR MORE BW 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.
