COLUMBUS, Ohio - Senior Melissa Hersey (West Chester, OH) laid in a right-handed lay-up on the left side with 19 ticks remaining to give Ohio Dominican's women's basketball team their first victory of the season, 51-49, against former AMC rival and NAIA preseason No. 7 Cedarville on Tuesday evening at Alumni Hall.

Katy Rasor (Jr./Grove City, OH) recorded the game's first points with a lay-up 20 seconds into the game, but the Yellow Jackets rattled off seven straight to grab the 7-2 lead with 15:32 remaining in the first.

The Panthers, led by freshman Christina Pentaudi's (Dayton, OH) five threes off the bench, then began to heat up behind the arc, nailing a remarkable 7-of-10 3-pointers over the next seven minutes as part of a 21-9 run to regain the lead at 23-16.

Cedarville closed on an 11-7 run to trim ODU's halftime lead to 30-27.

ODU opened the second half on a 16-6 run over the first 9:34 to take their largest lead of the game at 46-33, but the Panthers quickly became cold from the floor hitting just one of their next nine shot attempts and allowing the Yellow Jackets to knot the game at 49-49.

Hersey's end-to-end driving lay-up broke the ice and proved to be the game-winning basket as Cedarville threw the ball away on their final possession.  

Despite not playing in the second half due to an injury suffered in the closing seconds of the first, Pentaudi led ODU with 15 points, going 5-of-8 from long range. Hersey and Rasor each added 10, while Summer Hale (Sr./Galena, OH) finished with a team-high 10 rebounds.

Aubrey Siemon was the only Yellow Jacket in double figures, dropping in 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting to go along with 11 boards.

The Panthers (1-2) are off for the next eight days because of the holiday break, but will be back in action at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 2 as they make their first trip north to begin GLIAC play against No. 16 Grand Valley State. ODU concludes the road swing on Saturday, Dec. 4 at 3 p.m. against Ferris State.