BEREA, Ohio – Senior All-Ohio Athletic Conference guard/forward Audrey Smolik (Strongsville) scored a career and game-high 26 points as the No.3-seeded Baldwin Wallace University women's basketball team defeated No.6-seeded Heidelberg University, 85-64, in an OAC quarterfinal game in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium in the Lou Higgins Center.
BW (20-6), who has won the last 27 meetings against Heidelberg (11-16), advances to the OAC semifinals on Thursday, February 26 against No.2-seed John Carroll University (22-3) in the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center at 6 p.m. The other OAC semifinal will feature the winner of tonight's No. 4 Capital University and No.5 Wilmington College game traveling to top-seeded Ohio Northern University. The OAC Championship Game is Saturday, February 28
In addition to Smolik, sophomore forward Clara Lemmon (Canton/Louisville) scored 10 points and sophomore guard Sydney Clark (Parma/Lake Ridge Academy) grabbed a game-high
Smolik now has 1,041 career points and moved into 12th place on the BW all-time scoring list. She surpassed Yellow Jacket Hall of Famer Jen Nance (1997-2001) and is now six points shy of 11th place. In addition, the win also gave the Yellow Jackets their second straight 20-win season and the 14th in the 25-year career of Head Coach Cheri Harrer (508-185).
Heidelberg, who ends its season, was led by sophomore guard Theresa Jackson with 21 points and freshman guard Katie Brickner added 18 points.
After the game was tied at 4-4 to start the game, BW went on a 17-0 run to push the lead to 21-4 on a layup by junior guard Allyson Helleis (Rocky River) at the 13:44 mark. The Student Princes responded with a 6-4 run to cut the lead down to 25-10 on a layup by junior center Marisa Liburdi at 11:17.
The Yellow Jackets pushed their lead to as many as 29 points on two occasions with the last coming at 43-14 when Lemmon knocked down a pair of free throws at the 5:09 mark. Heidelberg outscored BW 8-2 down the stretch but trailed 45-22 at the intermission.
The halftime deficit proved to be too much for the Student Princes as they came only as close as 20 points on two occasions in the second half with the last coming at 75-55 on a jumper by Jackson at the 8:44 mark. The Yellow Jackets extended the lead to as many as 30-points on three occasions with the last coming at 60-30 on triple by Clark at 15:02.
The winner of the 2015 OAC Tournament receives an automatic berth into next week's NCAA Division III National Tournament.
