WESTERVILLE, OHIO – Otterbein (9-14, 6-10 OAC) fell just short to visiting and 25th-ranked Mount Union (20-3, 13-3 OAC) Saturday afternoon in the Rike Center, suffering a 68-66 loss after a late bucket from Purple Raider guard Kori Wiedt with 11 seconds remaining.

Mount began the game strong, using full-court defensive pressure to create a frantic pace and open a 15-7 lead at the 14:10 mark.

Otterbein closed to within four, at 30-26, when freshman Hannah Day buried a jumper with a little under four minutes to play in the half.

The Raiders held their ground, however, and eventually took a 39-30 lead into halftime.

A layup from OC’s Katy Miller opened the second-half scoring, but Mount Union scored the next five to take the largest lead of the contest at 44-32 with 15:43 remaining.

Not going away, the Cardinals embarked on a 12-0 run in just under three minutes to even the game at 44-44, with the last score coming on a layup from senior guard Karli Volkmer.

The Purple and White would jump to a seven-point advantage on two different occasions as the game progressed, but Otterbein continued to fight and eventually found themselves down just 61-59 after another layup from Volkmer at the 4:17 mark.

Mount would stretch its margin to five a minute later, but, refusing to go away, Otterbein tied the game at 66-66 when Miller converted on a layup with 1:24 showing on the game clock.

Mount held possession with 24 seconds to play and the game tied, and Wiedt would make a layup off a give-and-go from teammate Amanda Rose with 11 seconds to play.

The Cards had three opportunities in the final 11 seconds, but none were able to fall as the Raiders escaped with a 68-66 victory.

Otterbein out-scored Mount 30-18 in the paint, but Mount held a 29-11 edge in points off turnovers.

The Cards shot .459 for the game compared to just .397 for the Purple Raiders.

Miller led Otterbein with 17 points and seven rebounds as she passed Danielle Holbrook for second all-time on the program’s career rebounding list.

Sophomore point guard Shea McCoy tallied 15 points and dished out a game-high six assists, while fellow sophomore Kristi Kotterman scored ten.

Wiedt led all scorers with 26 points, 18 coming in the first half of play. She was 10-of-13 from the field in 30 minutes of action.

Rosa LaMattinna registered 18 for Mount while Rose contributed ten.

The Cardinals next hit the road to battle Marietta on Wednesday. Tip-off from the Ban Johnson Arena is slated for 7:30 p.m.