WESTERVILLE, Ohio - The 20th-nationally ranked Baldwin Wallace University women's basketball team could not overcome a hot second half in a 79-71 Ohio Athletic Conference loss to Otterbein University inside the Rike Center.
Junior Academic All-OAC guard/forward Mary Schentur (Broadview Heights/Brecksville-Broadview Heights) scored a team-high 16 points for the Yellow Jackets (10-3, 4-2 OAC). Junior Academic All-OAC guard/forward Kara Marshall (Copley/Archbishop Hoban) and sophomore guard Gabby Garrett (Columbus/Bishop Watterson) chipped in 13 points apiece. For Garrett, the 13-point performance marked the first double digit game of her career. Schentur and sophomore forward Sydney Diedrich (Chardon/Gilmour Academy) led the rebounding corps with six rebounds each.
Senior forward Dani Kissel put up a game-high 28 points in the victory for Otterbein (7-6, 3-3 OAC). Senior guard Ali Cartnal also joined Kissel with a 20-plus point performance, contributing 21 points of her own, while sophomore guard Angelia Jackson rounded out the Cardinals' double-digit scorers with 10 points.
Although both teams' offenses started out slow, BW and Otterbein traded field goals and leads for the first 4:47 of the game until Garrett nailed a three-point jumper to give the Yellow Jackets a 12-6 advantage. The Cardinals used a small 5-0 run to claw their way back into the game and only trailed by one point at the 4:26 mark after completing a three-point play. Schentur then kick-started a 9-0 run by draining a three-pointer which helped BW to build up its first double-digit lead of the game. Once Otterbein finally got a stop on defense, the period ended with a flurry of layups as the Yellow Jackets held on to a 24-15 lead.
Early in the second quarter, another BW run forced the Cardinals to burn a timeout at the 7:40 mark down 33-17. Not even the timeout could stop the Yellow Jacket offense, however, as Marshall came down the floor and hit a trey on the next offensive possession to continue an eventual 14-0 run. When Otterbein recovered on offense, the Cardinals went off on a 9-0 run of their own before halftime but still trailed BW 42-28 heading into the locker room.
Otterbein carried its momentum into the second half, going off on two separate runs to cut the Yellow Jacket lead down to single digits. Feeling the pressure, Garrett and Schentur put the team on their backs and combined for 11 points in a 1:34 span to regain a 57-42 lead with 3:49 left. However, the Cardinals closed out the period on an 11-1 run, including back-to-back three-pointers in the final 30 seconds, as BW only led by five points, 58-53.
A 5-0 Cardinal run started the fourth quarter and tied the game at 58-58 with 8:51 left on the clock. Two straight layups from Diedrich and a three-point play from freshman forward Lilly Edwards (Dublin/Coffman) put the Yellow Jackets back up by five points at 65-60. Otterbein used hot three-point shooting to regain the lead for good, outscoring the Yellow Jackets 13-2 over the final 3:21 of the game to secure the win.
BW remains on the road on Wednesday, Jan. 9, when the Yellow Jackets travel to Ada to take on Ohio Northern University at 7 p.m. inside the ONU Sports Center.
