WILMINGTON, Ohio – The Otterbein women's basketball team earned its eighth victory in the last nine games by defeating Wilmington 73-61 Wednesday night, as the Cardinals were paced by Dani Kissel's game-high 26 points.

Otterbein improves to 8-6 overall and 4-3 in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC), as Wilmington drops to 7-7 overall and 2-5 in the league.  

The Cards rattled off seven-straight points midway through the first quarter and led 15-11. At the end of the period, Kissel and Jacy Jones tallied 11 of the team's 23 first-quarter points.

Otterbein saw its largest lead of the first half of 13 points at the 2:47 mark following a Kissel jumper. Wilmington scored the final five points of the stanza making the score 41-33 at the intermission.

Kissel scored 11 points in the second period on an efficient 5 of 7 shooting from the floor and led the team with 17 at the break.

Angelia Jackson buried a three pointer at the beginning of the third quarter to give Otterbein a double-digit lead. The Cardinals would continue to hold a lead over 10 points, until Wilmington made a pair of free throws and cut the lead to nine with 1:16 remaining in the period.

Abbie Scholz grabbed an offensive rebound and finished a contested layup right before the buzzer to give the Cards a 55-46 edge heading into the final quarter.

The Fightin' Quakers were able to cut the deficit to six multiple times but could never get any closer, as Otterbein continued to have an answer.

Jackson chipped in a career-high 15 points on 50 percent shooting from the field and Scholz was one rebound shy of a double-double. 

Otterbein will return to the Rike Center on Saturday for an OAC matchup against Mount Union at 3 p.m.