Box Score COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio Dominican's women's basketball team led for most of the first 32 minutes of the game, but Cedarville rallied to grab an 85-82 win over the Panthers in the final game of the GLIAC-GMAC Crossover Saturday evening in Alumni Hall.
With the loss, ODU dropped to 1-1 on the year, while the Yellow Jackets improved to 2-0.
Senior Kacee Hockenberry (Haviland, Ohio) scored a game-high 26 points to surpass 1,000 career points and hit a trio of three pointers in the final 1:16 as the Panthers tried to recover from a 78-71 deficit. Her third three-pointer in that span, coming with eight seconds left, trimmed the deficit to 83-82.
But Cedarville made two free throws with five seconds left, and a desperation shot attempt before the buzzer turned into a Panther turnover as ODU could not get a shot off to force overtime.
Junior Melissa Scherpenberg (Cincinnati, Ohio) had her second straight double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds and sophomore Madi Rittinger (Dayton, Ohio) added 15 points and seven rebounds. Sophomore Lauren Bated (Hilliard, Ohio) chipped in with 11 points as well.
Overall, the Panthers shot 31-of-60 (51.7 percent) from the floor and surpassed 80 points for a third straight game, but Cedarville outscored ODU 55-46 in the second. The Yellow Jackets went 27-of-34 from the free throw line, including 23-of-27 in the second half (85.2 percent).
ODU took a 36-30 lead into the break as Scherpenberg scored five straight in the final 1:14 of the first half, and the lead went to eight on a pair of occasions early in the second half.
Cedarville climbed back in, though, and took its first lead since the opening minutes at 59-58 with 8:10 left. The Panthers went back in front by four, 65-61, after a three by sophomore Lindsay Blanford (Xenia, Ohio), but Cedarville went on a 17-6 run over the next four minutes to take its 78-71 lead.
Hockenberry became the 20th player in ODU history to surpass 1,000 career points. She now has 1,005 career points.
Ohio Dominican continues its non-conference play with a 5:30 p.m. game Thursday against Wisconsin-Parkside in Alumni Hall.
Contact: Scott Miles
miless@ohiodominican.edu
