Box Score

ALLIANCE, Ohio – The Cardinal women's basketball team picked up its first conference win of the season in dramatic fashion Saturday afternoon, getting a buzzer-beating layup from senior Madi Miller to escape with a thrilling 71-70 victory at the University of Mount Union.

Otterbein University, improving to 3-5 overall and 1-2 within the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC), trailed 70-67 with 56 seconds remaining before getting a jumper from senior Mary Corbett followed by the layup from Miller.

Otterbein had opened an 11-point advantage down the backstretch of the first half before ultimately settling for a 34-28 margin at intermission. A three-pointer from Cardinal point guard Chelsea Reed began the second-half scoring, but the Purple Raiders (3-4, 1-2 OAC) continued to apply pressure and eventually drew even, at 47-47, with 11:34 remaining.

The Cards built their cushion back to six with 6:16 left, but the hosts countered with a 13-3 run to ultimately grab a 66-62 lead, its biggest of the game, with 3:53 to go.

 

Reed later tied the contest at 67-67 after an old-fashioned three-point play before three Purple Raiders free throws gave Mount the 70-67 edge as the clock ticked under 1:00.

Corbett sank her jumper with 45 seconds remaining, allowing the Cardinals to play defense, instead of fouling, due to the shot-clock differential. Junior Amariah Huck brought down a Mount Union missed shot with seven seconds left and passed to Reed, who took a few quick dribbles and found Miller for the game-winning bucket.

"I saw Huck secure that rebound and just took off down the floor, knowing they would look for me," Miller said afterwards. "It was huge to get this conference road win leading up to games against Muskingum and Capital this coming week."

Freshman Abby Miduri turned in her best game of the season for Otterbein, shooting 7-of-14 off the bench in scoring a game-high 17 points. She connected on three of her six attempts from behind the arc.

"Our staff knew that was coming from Abby at some point," Otterbein head coach Connie Richardson said. "We weren't exactly sure when it was going to happen, but she is our best shooter and we needed to play her a bit more today given the defense Mount Union employs.  She's capable of doing that every time out."

Four other Cardinals made it into double figures, including an all-around effort from Reed with 12 points, a season-high 11 assists and five rebounds. Miller and Corbett each scored 11 while Huck registered 10 and tied for a game-high seven rebounds.

"We did some nice things down the stretch today and didn't collapse when times got difficult," Richardson added. "We got a few huge stops defensively and will need to continue to understand our concepts moving forward. I think getting five players into double figures shows that we shared the ball well. We just need to keep plugging away."

Sarah Grippi and Chandler Moore combined to score 28 on the Mount Union side.

Otterbein will play at Muskingum at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday  before a Saturday afternoon affair at crosstown-rival Capital.