PAINESVILLE, Ohio – Ohio Dominican's women's basketball survived a cold spell from the field in the second half and put away Lake Erie 68-58 on Saturday in GLIAC play.

The victory, ODU's fourth in the past five games, lifts the Panthers to 9-15 on the season (6-15 GLIAC) as Ohio Dominican swept the season series from Lake Erie.

ODU held Lake Erie to 30.5 percent shooting for the contest and hit a season-best 22 free throws to pull away with the win.

Four players scored in double figures for the Panthers, led by freshman guard Rachael Torey (Sterling Heights, Mich.), who tallied 13 points. Classmate Melissa Scherpenberg (Cincinnati, Ohio) tallied her second-straight double-double with 12 points and 12 boards, and sophomore guard Kacee Hockenberry (Haviland, Ohio) stuffed the stat sheet with 11 points, nine rebounds and seven steals, matching a career-best in rebounds and setting a career-high in steals.

Sophomore Micaela Liddane (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.) matched a season-best with 10 points and junior Mykeila Mast (Millersburg, Ohio) came off the bench to tally nine points and five rebounds for ODU.

Lake Erie scored the game's first seven points and used another 7-0 run to go in front 15-8 with just over 10 minutes to play. The lead stretched to as many as nine, 25-16, before ODU responded.

Hockenberry came up with a steal and went coast to coast, finishing with a floater left of the paint to make it 27-23. Scherpenberg beat the shot clock with a jumper a step inside the three-point line to make it 27-25, and free throws by Torey and Mast gave the Panthers their first lead at 28-27 with just over two minutes to play in the half.

ODU continued its strong run to close the half, as Torey drilled a three and Hockenberry knocked down a short jumper to send the Panthers to a 33-27 lead at the break. Lake Erie didn't make a field goal in the final 7:12 of the half, with ODU finishing the frame on a 17-2 burst.

The Panthers stayed hot to start the second half as well, eventually stretching their lead to 41-30 on a Liddane three-pointer to cap what was a 25-5 run spanning the two halves.

Lake Erie scored seven of the next nine points to draw within 43-37, but the Panthers pushed the lead back to 48-38 as Hockenberry hit a pull-up jumper with 12:10 left. Lake Erie knocked down a pair of shots to make it 48-43, but ODU scored five straight points from the free throw to re-gain a 10-point lead at the 9:13 mark.

ODU's offense went on a cold spell, though, as Hockenberry's bucket was ODU's only field goal in a nine-minute stretch, and the Storm cut the Panther lead to 55-54. After two ODU free throws and a Lake Erie bucket, Mast rolled in a layup from the left side to put ODU in front 59-56, and Scherpenberg beat the shot clock for a second time with a jumper that made it 61-56 in favor of ODU with 2:42 left.

Mast then followed up a missed Panther shot with an offensive rebound and finished with a layup to make it 63-56 with 55 seconds to play. The teams swapped free throws, and a Lake Erie three-pointer rolled out. Junior forward Katelyn Stuckey pulled down the rebound and made a free throw with 22 ticks left to ice the victory for the Panthers.

The Panthers shot 44.4 percent (20-of-45) from the field. ODU was also able to convert 20 Storm turnovers into 24 points and held a 39-36 edge in rebounding.

Stuckey tallied eight points and seven rebounds as well to lead ODU.

Ohio Dominican concludes its five-game road trip with a 6 p.m. non-conference matchup at Ursuline on Wednesday, Feb. 27 in Pepper Pike, Ohio.

Contact: Scott Miles
miless@ohiodominican.edu