BEREA, Ohio – The Baldwin Wallace University women's basketball team was victorious in its home opener, having won by a final score of 68-55 against St. Vincent (Pa.) College inside Urpsrung Gymnasium.
With BW's (3-0) victory, the Yellow Jackets remained undefeated in its all-time series against St. Vincent, improving its matchups record against the Bearcats to 4-0. The win also marks the fourth consecutive season that BW has won its first three games of the regular season.
The Yellow Jackets were led by the strong play of sophomore All-Ohio Athletic Conference forward Lilly Edwards (Dublin/Coffman), who tallied a team-high 17 points and six rebounds off the bench. Senior All-OAC guard/forward Hannah Fecht (Hilliard/Davidson) poured in 12 points, and converted on a season-high four three-pointers. Sophomore guard Megan Hensel (Upper Sandusky) also provided some quality bench minutes scoring 10 points and grabbing four boards in the win.
St. Vincent sophomore forward Madison Kollar spearheaded the Bearcats by garnering a game-high 22 points on 9-18 shooting, to go along with five rebounds. Senior guard Kayla Slovenec was solid on the glass as well, corralling a game-high 11 rebounds in the defeat.
BW came out of the gate strong, as it jumped out to an early 13-4 lead to open the game. The Yellow Jackets then stretched their initial tip-off run to 22-8 at the 3:11 mark of the first quarter. The Yellow Jacket's Fecht had a terrific first quarter, scoring nine points on 3-4 three-point shooting. BW's solid efforts culminated into a 27-12 lead at the end of the first frame. St. Vincent's Kollar drained a three-pointer at the second quarter's 5:55 mark, capping off a 10-2 run for the Bearcats as they tried to sway the momentum in their favor. Kollar was the story of the second quarter, accumulating 10 points in the frame after going a perfect 4-4 from the field and 2-2 from three-point range. However, BW junior guard Gabby Garrett (Columbus/Bishop Watterson) halted St. Vincent's run with a crucial three-pointer of her own on the very next possession. Her three-pointer ended up spurring a 14-4 run for the Yellow Jackets to end the first half.
BW's Hensel made her biggest impact of the game in the third quarter, scoring eight points on a perfect 3-3 from the field, and 2-2 beyond the arc. Edwards also hit a running one-handed jump shot at the buzzer to complete a 10-2 run for the Yellow Jackets to close the third quarter. The third period was also highlighted by BW's sound defense limiting their adversaries to just nine points, and 21.4 percent shooting. The Yellow Jackets's 25-point lead at the end of the third quarter represented their largest lead of the game. However, the Bearcats would not go down without a fight as they relentlessly battled to stay within striking distance in the final quarter. St. Vincent even sparked up a 16-5 run to cut the lead to 14. Despite shooting a mere 9.1 percent from the field in the fourth period, BW held on for the padded double-digit victory.
The Yellow Jackets return to the court on Saturday, November 23, when they travel to Washington, Pennsylvania to take on Washington & Jefferson (Pa.) College in a non-conference matchup at 1:00 p.m. in the Henry Memorial Center.
