BEREA, OHIO -- Senior guard Jessica Butzer (Orrville) scored a team-high 18 points as the Baldwin-Wallace College women's basketball team defeated Ohio Northern University, 62-51, today (Saturday, January 31, 2009) in an Ohio Athletic Conference game in the Ursprung Gymnasium in Berea. The victory was a season-high 10th straight for the Yellow Jackets.
In addition to Butzer for B-W, sophomore guard Amanda Schroeder (Columbus Grove), this week's OAC Player of the Week, scored 14 points and junior forward Serena Farage (Medina/ Buckeye) had nine points, six rebounds, three assists, three blocked shots and two steals. Also, 6'2" junior center Ariel Brough (Powell/ Olentangy-Liberty) reset her own school-record for blocked shots in a season with 61. ONU was led by senior guard Alisha Rinehart with a game-high 24 points.
With its win, B-W improves to 14-5 overall and 9-3 in the OAC and entered the game tied for second place with Muskingum College and one game back of league-leader Capital University . With its loss, ONU is now 8-11 overall and 6-6 in the OAC.
In the first half, the Polar Bears jumped out to a 2-0 lead at the 18:55 mark when sophomore forward Erica Schoenberger grabbed an offensive rebound and made a layup. B-W then scored the next four points to take a 4-2 lead at 16:55 when Brough made a jump shot.
ONU then outscored B-W 10-2 to gain its largest lead of the half at 12-6 with 12:41 left when Schoenberger made a three-pointer. Undaunted, the Jackets outscored the Bears 7-0 to regain the lead at 13-12 when Schroeder made a layup.
Following four lead changes and three ties, with the last at 24-24 with 2:52 left, B-W gained control of the contest by outscoring ONU 8-0 to gain its largest lead of eight points at 32-24 with 22 seconds left when Schroeder canned a trey. The score remained that way at halftime.
In the second half, after ONU cut B-W's lead to 32-27, Brough blocked her record-setting shot when she rejected a Schoenberger attempt with 17:54 left for her 60th blocked shot of the season.
That didn't stop the Polar Bears as they completed a 10-2 run at the 15:52 mark to tie the score at 34-34 when Rinehart canned her third trey of the game. But B-W came right back and outscored ONU 15-4 to build a lead of 49-38 at 9:03 when Farage made a jumper. The run continued as B-W built its largest lead of 14 points at 57-43 with 4:42 left when Farage grabbed an offensive rebound and scored. During the 23-9 Yellow Jacket run, Butzer scored 11 of her team-high 18 markers.
The closest ONU would get after that point was eight points at 58-50 when Rinehart scored, was fouled and made her free throw.
The Yellow Jacket women return to action on Wednesday, February 4 when it hosts Heidelberg University in an OAC contest at 7:30 p.m. in Berea.
All women's basketball games are broadcast by campus radio station WBW. The away games are both on radio at 88.3 FM and via the WBW Internet web site at www.wBW.com. The home games are available only via internet.
FOR MORE SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu. Fans can access the latest B-W athletics information at www.BWyellowjackets.com and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.
