Box Score

WESTERVILLE, OHIO - The Otterbein University women's basketball team (5-8, 1-5 OAC) picked up its first conference victory of the season Wednesday evening with an 88-81 overtime victory over rival Capital University (8-4, 3-3 OAC) in the Rike Center.

The Crusaders began the game on a 9-3 run, but Otterbein bounced back to gain a 17-15 lead on a three-pointer from junior Kristi Kotterman at the 11:19 mark.

The contest remained close, and Otterbein held the biggest lead of the first half at 34-29 before taking a 39-34 edge into the half.

Otterbein pushed its lead to nine by the 15:43 mark of the second half, but the Purple and White strung together possessions and eventually closed to within 59-58 as just 7:21 appeared on the game clock.

The Cards pushed their lead back to six, a 66-60, but Capital continued to hang around and wound up taking a 69-68 lead with 1:33 remaining.

A layup from sophomore Tiffany Rader put the Cards ahead by one, but Capital made the front-end of two free-throws on the ensuing trip, then corralled an offensive rebound on the following missed free-throw to retain possession.

Crusader forward Elizabeth Ladrach was fouled with four second to play, and made both attempts from the charity stripe to give the visitors a 72-70 lead with 4.2 seconds remaining.

Needing to go the length of the court, Kotterman hauled in a pass at half-court, dribbled up the left side and banked in a jumper, while getting fouled, with just one second to play. She would unfortunately miss the ensuing free-throw off the back iron as the game headed for overtime.

Kotterman stayed poised and drilled a three-pointer on Otterbein’s first possession of the extra frame, and the Cards stayed full-throttle from then on to open a lead and preserve the 88-81 victory.

Kotterman finished with a career-high 27 points on 9-of-17 shooting in 37 minutes. Junior guard Shea McCoy dropped 23 points while sophomore Hannah Day came off the Otterbein bench to notch a career-best 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting.

Stacey Timmerman led Capital with 23 points while Tara Harper chipped in 18. Ladrach contributed nicely off the Crusader bench with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Capital shot .517 from the field compared to .485 for Otterbein, but the Purple and White had six more turnovers. The Cards buried 10-of-18 from three-point range while Capital connected on six triples.

The Cards return to action Saturday afternoon, traveling to New Concord to take on Muskingum University. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.