CEDARVILLE, Ohio – Ohio Dominican's women's basketball team watched a 12-point second half lead evaporate but rallied in the waning minutes to claim a 70-69 victory at Cedarville in Saturday's season-opener.

Trailing 66-62, freshman Tori Beth Leader (West Portsmouth, Ohio) sank a jumper to bring the Panthers to within two with 2:10 left. After a swap of scoreless possessions, sophomore guard Rachael Torey (Sterling Heights, Mich.) came up with a loose ball and drew a foul driving to the basket, hitting both free throws to tie the game with 53 ticks left.

Sophomore forward Melissa Scherpenberg (Cincinnati, Ohio) then poked the ball away from a Cedarville player and lobbed it up ahead to Torey, who finished the layup to put ODU back in front 68-66 with just 20 seconds remaining.

After a Cedarville timeout, ODU's defense knocked the ball out of bounds, and the Yellow Jackets would turn it over again on the ensuing inbound pass.

The Panthers inbounded to Torey, who was fouled again and hit both free throws with less than 10 seconds remaining to give ODU a 70-66 lead, and Cedarville threw in a harmless three-pointer at the buzzer as ODU won its season opener for a third consecutive year.

Junior guard Kacee Hockenberry led the Panthers with 15 points, while Torey hit 6-of-8 free throws to tally 10 points. Junior guard Micaela Liddane (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.) added nine points while Leader and classmate Lauren Bates (Hilliard, Ohio) each had eight points.

ODU's post players were solid as well. Freshman Madi Rittinger (Dayton, Ohio) had seven points with six rebounds, sophomore Alex Hallenbeck (St. Johns, Mich.) had seven points and seven rebounds, and Scherpenberg finished with six points and nine rebounds as the Panthers were plus-six on the glass.

The Panthers trailed by as much as seven in the opening eight minutes before controlling the latter part of the first half. A 13-0 spurt erased that deficit and staked ODU to a 17-11 lead at the eight-minute mark, and ODU led by as much as nine on a pair of occasions before settling for a 33-28 advantage at the break.

ODU hit 14-of-29 shots from the field in the opening 20 minutes, just a shade under 50 percent for the half.

The Panthers then got off to a quick start in the second half as well. Liddane knocked down a three-pointer to stretch the lead to 10, and Hockenberry's short jumper gave the Panthers a 46-34 lead five minutes into the half.

But Cedarville came back with a big run of its own, taking the lead back at 52-51 with just over 10 minutes left in the game.

The Yellow Jackets stretched their lead to four points on a pair of occasions, including that 66-62 edge with two and a half minutes left in the game before the Panthers went on a late 8-0 run.

The Panthers shot 44.3 percent from the field for the game and outrebounded Cedarville 41-35. ODU also shot 13-of-16 from the free throw line, hitting on 81.3 percent from the charity stripe.

Ohio Dominican returns to action next Saturday in its home opener with Ursuline in Alumni Hall.

Contact: Scott Miles
miless@ohiodominican.edu