Box Score
ADA, Ohio – The Otterbein women's basketball team picked up its ninth-straight victory with a 64-56 upset over No. 21-ranked Ohio Northern on the road Wednesday night in Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) action.
Otterbein (16-8 overall) bumps its record up to 12-5 in league play and is now just one win shy of tying the program record for wins in-a-row (10), matched by the 2012-13 which advanced to the NCAA D3 Tournament. The win also means the Cards maintain a one-game advantage over fourth-place Mount Union, which defeated Baldwin Wallace 83-72 tonight on the road.
A victory for the Cards over the Purple Raiders at this Saturday's regular-season finale would clinch the third-seed in next week's OAC Tournament. Tip-off is at 3 p.m. inside the Rike Center on Senior Day for
Kiersten Taylor and
Abby Miduri, who will be recognized pregame.
The Cardinals battled right from the start to take a 13-9 lead after the first quarter of play despite nearly three minutes of non-scoring action between the two squads.
A pair of made free throws by Taylor on the first possession of the second period boosted the lead to six points, before the Polar Bears inched within two points at 15-13 just over a minute later.
But the Otterbein defense continued to capitalize off missed shots by ONU which led to a 10-2 scoring run in which junior
Abby Miduri converted a three-pointer and two free throws as the bulk of the offensive output.
ONU (20-4, 14-3 OAC) then stepped up its game on both ends of the court as Otterbein scored just five points over the final 5:26 of the first half, to which the Polar Bears took advantage and narrowed the deficit to 30-23 at the break. Taylor and Miduri paced the Cards at halftime with a combined 15 points.
The Cardinals never surrendered their lead throughout the third quarter, going ahead by as many as eight points in the frame before settling on a 43-39 lead heading into the final period.
Otterbein then posted its highest-scoring quarter over the final 10 minutes, totaling 21 points to take its largest lead of the night at 56-45 following three-straight three-pointers from Miduri, junior
Ali Cartnal and classmate
Dani Kissel in a span of just over a minute as the clock winded below six minutes remaining.
The Polar Bears cut it back to single digits on multiple occasions down the stretch, but to no avail as the Cardinals made just enough shots from the foul line going 6-for-8 over the final three minutes.
Cartnal finished with a team-high 17 points on 4-of-8 shooting, including a trio of shots from beyond the arc and a perfect 6-for-6 mark from the charity stripe. Miduri followed with 14 points, which also included three shots from distance, while Taylor added another solid performance with 13 points and five rebounds.
Kissel filled the stat sheet for the Cards with eight points, five assists and four boards. ONU's Amy Bullimore, who is tied atop the league leaderboard in scoring, recorded a double-double with 30 points and 10 rebounds.
