Box Score
WESTERVILLE, OHIO – Otterbein University, seeded third, advanced to the semifinals of the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament with a 71-64 victory over No. 6 seed Wilmington College Tuesday evening in the Rike Center.
The Cardinals (20-6) head to take on No. 2 seed Ohio Northern University in Ada Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m., with the winner advancing to the tournament championship. Wilmington ends its season at 13-14.
The victory pushes Otterbein to the 20-win mark for the first time since the 2003-04 season, when it lost to Wilmington in the OAC title game.
Both teams started slow offensively, with Wilmington holding an 8-2 lead before a 9-0 Otterbein run put the host Cardinals on top at 11-8 by the 12:48 mark.
Otterbein kept the pressure on, getting two buckets each from Shea McCoy and Hannah Day to open a 20-10 lead with 7:05 remaining before the half.
Scoring would be at a premium over the next few minutes, but Otterbein maintained its stifling defense and eventually found a small stride offensively en route to a 33-21 halftime lead.
Otterbein maintained a healthy advantage during back and forth action to begin the second half, and pushed its lead to 52-35 after an old-fashioned three-point play from Tabatha Piper at the 10:54 mark.
The Quakers continued to fight and cut the deficit to six, at 59-93, to force an Otterbein timeout with 2:22 left to play. However, a basket from Piper out of the timeout would halt the momentum and Wilmington would not get any closer the rest of the way.
McCoy, who hit the game-winner at Wilmington over the weekend and has averaged 17.5 ppg. over the last five outings, continued her impressive play with a game-high 19 points on 8 of 12 shooting.
Allie Leopard scored 14 points while Day and Kristi Kotterman scored 11 and 10, respectively.
Shleby Kies scored 13 to lead four Wilmington players in double figures.
Otterbein limited Wilmington to just 21 of 70 (.300) shooting while posting a 22 of 54 (.407) effort from the field themselves.
Both teams were solid at the free-throw line. Wilmington made 15 of its 16 attempts while Otterbein converted 24 of 29 opportunities.
Otterbein will be looking to avenge two regular season losses to Ohio Northern come Thursday. The Polar Bears used a last-second jumper to escape Westerville with a 52-50 victory early in the season before winning 66-58 in Ada on Jan. 25.
