WESTERVILLE, Ohio—The Otterbein women's basketball team erased a 20-point deficit in the second half before it unfortunately lost a nail-biter to conference foe Mount Union, 68-65, Saturday afternoon inside the Rike Center.

The Cardinals trailed 53-33 with 3:06 to play in the third quarter before staging a comeback for the second-straight Saturday, tying the game at 63-63 with 52 seconds left to play. Otterbein had previously erased a 23-point deficit against nationally-ranked Baldwin Wallace last weekend.

The Raiders regained the lead on a Jaime Sanborn layup with 35 seconds left to play, and then split a pair of free throws following an Otterbein turnover. Cardinal senior Dani Kissel connected on two free-throws shortly thereafter, cutting the deficit to 66-65 with four seconds showing on the game clock. The visitors would go on to prevail in the closing seconds after making two more at the charity stripe and intercepting an ensuing inbounds pass near midcourt.

Otterbein drops to 8-7 overall and 4-4 in Ohio Athletic Conference play with the loss, while Mount Union improves to 13-2 on the year and 5-3 against the league.

A tightly contested first half featured multiple runs by both teams. The sides traded baskets throughout the first quarter as Mount Union carried a 19-14 lead into the second. The Cardinals jumped out to a 6-0 run to begin the quarter acquiring a 20-19 lead.

Mount Union would respond with an 11-4 run, beginning at the 7:10 mark and spanning three minutes, to take a 30-23 lead. With 2:13 left to play in the half, Otterbein cut the deficit to one point on the strength of a 6-0 run lasting over three minutes. The visitors would take a 34-31 lead into the locker room.

The Purple Raiders came out of halftime firing on all cylinders, grabbing a double-digit lead (41-31) lead courtesy of a 7-0 run. Kissel converted a layup at the 5:37 mark to cut the lead under double digits.

The single-digit deficit was short-lived as Mount Union would embark on a 12-2 run, acquiring a 53-33 advantage with 3:06 left in the third quarter. The Cardinals responded with a 7-0 run to close out the quarter and cut the deficit to 53-40.

Kissel, the OAC's leading scorer by almost four points, dropped a game-high 35 on 13-of-23 shooting. She and point guard Ali Cartnal combined for 48 of Otterbein's 65 points, with forward Abbie Scholz matching Sanborn for a game-best 11 rebounds.

Sanborn and Rachel Tinkey combined to score 30 for Mount Union, which had major contributions from the bench in outscoring the Cards 33-5.

Otterbein's next game will be Wednesday evening when it travels to Ohio Northern at 7 p.m.