Wittenberg 85, Ohio Wesleyan 62

Freshman guard Tavia Croom (Heath) sank a pair of free throws to tie the game at 8-8, but Wittenberg responded with a 9-0 run to take the lead for good and pulled away during the second half to record a win in North Coast Athletic Conference play on Saturday at Branch Rickey Arena.

Ohio Wesleyan will be the No. 7 seed in the upcoming NCAC tournament and will visit Denison for a quarterfinal game at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Sophomore post Tamra Londot (Utica) sank a lay-in and Croom followed with a pair of free throws to even the game at 8-8 with 15:09 left in the first half, but the Bishops would not score for nearly 5 minutes after that.

Meanwhile, the Tigers assembled baskets from Amber Lara and Katelyn Haralamos, a 3-pointer from Amber Rice, and a jumper by Enri Small to push the lead to 17-9 with 11:03 left in the half.

Freshman wing Caroline Welker (Delaware/Hayes) ended the Bishop drought with a lay-in at the 10:13 mark, and the Bishops were still within 28-19 after a lay-in by freshman post LaNiece McRae (Youngstown/Chaney) with 4:56 to go, but Ohio Wesleyan would not score again during the half, and the Tigers' 10-0 run to close the period inflated the margin to 38-19 at the break.

Ohio Wesleyan rallied during the second half, closing to within a dozen on a 3-pointer by freshman guard Sarah McQuade (Dublin/Coffman) and a 3-point play from McRae, but that was as close as the Bishops would come.

McRae led the Bishops with 18 points, McQuade finished with 13, and freshman wing Mary Corbett (Columbus/Upper Arlington) scored 10 points.  Londot grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds and Croom collected 5 assists.

Small led Wittenberg with 23 points and 7 rebounds, while Haralamos finished with 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field.

Box Score