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WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The No. 2 seed Otterbein University women’s basketball team tallied an impressive 80-57 win over the University of Mount Union Thursday evening in the semifinals of the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Tournament.
The victory advances Otterbein (21-5) into the tournament finals at top-seeded and fourth-ranked Ohio Northern University (25-1) Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with the winner receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
“The girls took in everything we did at practice over the last few days and really channeled it out on the court tonight,” head coach Connie Richardson said. “There were times in the game where we could have lost our composure, but we stayed together for 40 minutes. I was very impressed with our focus.”
Mount Union, the tournament’s No. 3 seed and three-time defending champion, likely ends its season at 20-7 overall.
Otterbein has never won a conference championship, having only advanced to the title game one other time during the 2003-04 season. The Cardinals lost to eventual national champion Wilmington College during that run.
“It will obviously be a challenge on Saturday, but I know my team will be excited and ready to play,” Richardson said. “Ohio Northern can hurt you in a lot of ways and take away some of your strengths, so we’ll need to play our best game and get contributions from everyone.”
Mount Union missed its first 11 field-goal attempts to start the game, allowing Otterbein to jump ahead 11-1 after four minutes of action.
The Cardinals led 14-3 after a three-pointer from Tabatha Piper, but the Raiders strung together a quick 7-0 run to get right back in the game.
Mount eventually worked its way back to tie the game at 24-24, but the Cards ended the half on a 9-2 run to take a 33-26 edge into halftime.
Otterbein, now 19-0 this season when leading at the break, kept the momentum with a 12-3 run to open the second half and assume a 45-29 advantage with 15:34 to play.
The Raiders hit a three-pointer out of a timeout, but Otterbein remained in control and widened the margin to 60-40 by the 8:23 mark after Rachel Snedegar split a pair of free throws. The Cardinals built the lead to as many as 29 before cruising to victory.
Senior Hannah Day was impressive throughout, tying a career-high with 30 points to go along with eight rebounds. She now sits just 15 points shy of 1,000 for her career.
Point guard Chelsea Reed had 13 points, four rebounds, and four assists, while Tabatha Piper chipped in nine points and nine boards.
Aly Daniel and Annie Bova each scored 10 points to led Mount Union.
Purple Raider All-American Rosa LaMattina totaled seven points on 2 of 20 shooting, including a three-pointer in the closing minute, to become her school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,606 points, besting the previous mark by one.
“Rosa is a great player and has shown the ability to score whenever she wants, but our girls took on the challenge to make it tough for her tonight,” Richardson said.
Otterbein shot .469 from the field while holding Mount Union to 20 of 76 (.263), including an 8 of 44 effort from three-point range. The Cardinals made 27 of 44 attempts at the free-throw line.
