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WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein University women's basketball team dropped its first contest of the New Year, falling, 82-70, to Heidelberg on Saturday inside the Rike Center.
 
Otterbein (6-7 overall) moves to 1-5 in Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) play, with its next matchup coming at John Carroll this coming Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
 
A back and forth style through the first two periods resulted in neither team taking more than a four-point advantage, as freshman guard Ali Cartnal tied the game for the Cards at 32 points apiece with four seconds left before halftime. Cartnal led all scorers at the break with 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting, tallying a perfect 4-for-4 mark from the foul line.
 
The Cardinals opened the second half with a 9-3 scoring run to take a six-point lead over the Student Princes with 7:44 remaining in the third period. Heidelberg responded with an 8-0 scoring run of its own, as four different players for the Student Princes posted a basket in a span of over a minute.
 
A three-pointer by sophomore guard Abby Miduri with 5:54 remaining in the quarter turned the lead back over to the Cardinals at 44-43. Neither team managed to take more than a two-point lead over the final five minutes of play, as Otterbein took a slim lead of 53-52 into the final period.
 
Both teams struggled for nearly two minutes into the fourth quarter, before Heidelberg junior forward Carli Patrick scored a layup to help the Student Princes regain the lead at 54-53. Otterbein's offensive game went cold for over five minutes, before Cartnal connected on back-to-back three-pointers to cut the Cards' deficit to two points at 61-59 with 4:33 left to play.
 
The Student Princes managed to increase their lead to seven points with 3:14 remaining, before Cartnal drew a foul on Heidelberg to send her to the line for three free throws. Cartnal connected on the trio of foul shots to narrow Otterbein's deficit to a two-possession game at 68-64 with 2:51 remaining.
 
A desperation three-pointer made by Patrick near the end of the Heidelberg shot clock boosted the Student Princes lead to seven points at the 2:28 mark, before solid foul shooting down the stretch ultimately sealed the team's fourth win in conference play.
 
Cartnal led all scorers with a season-high 24 points on 6-of-12 shooting, including a 3-of-7 mark from three-point range, posting four rebounds and four steals in the process. She also connected on 9-of-10 foul shots. Freshman guard Dani Kissel followed with 14 points on 3-of-13 shooting, converting all six free throw attempts and corralling three rebounds.
 
Senior forward Amariah Huck recorded a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, boosting her career-point total to 908 as she closes in on the 1,000-point plateau. Sophomore forward Kiersten Taylor chipped in 10 points for her third double-digit scoring effort this season.
 
Heidelberg shot an impressive 55.8 percent from the field to Otterbein's 34.4 percent, as both teams shot over 20 free throws and connected on at least 72 percent. The Student Princes enjoyed a 38-22 advantage in points in the paint to go along with a 28-3 margin in bench points.