PAINESVILLE, Ohio – In a game that featured 61 fouls and 82 free throws, Ohio Dominican's women's basketball team suffered a 76-74 setback at Lake Erie Saturday in GLIAC play.

The Panthers (7-11, 4-10 GLIAC) rallied from a 10-point second half deficit, but couldn't overcome 30 turnovers and some early-game free throw woes.

Junior guard Kacee Hockenberry (Haviland, Ohio) scored 21 points on 7-of-9 shooting, while sophomore forward Melissa Scherpenberg (Cincinnati, Ohio) had her second straight double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Freshman guard Lauren Bates (Hilliard, Ohio) added 11 points as well for ODU, who almost shot as many free throws (44) as they had field goal attempts (46).

The Panthers went 20-of-46 from the field (43.5 percent), but hit just 31-of-44 (70.5 percent) from the line. Lake Erie (9-11, 4-10 GLIAC), meanwhile, shot 44.4 percent from the field, scored 34 points in the paint and had 20 points off the ODU miscues.

ODU trailed by as much as six, 22-16, late in the first half, but Bates knocked down a three and Scherpenberg hit a jumper to bring the Panthers within one. Down by two in the waning seconds, senior guard Mykeila Mast (Millersburg, Ohio) came up with a steal in the backcourt, leading to a Bates layup to tie the score at 26 at intermission.

The Panthers fell behind 40-36, but Hockenberry had a three-point play, then grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on a putback jumper to put the Panthers in front 41-40 with 12:45 to play.

Lake Erie answered with a 17-6 run, grabbing their biggest lead at 57-47 with 9:44 left.

Freshman guard Tori Beth Leader (West Portsmouth, Ohio) sank two free throws to bring the Panthers to within 64-60 with 6:26 remaining, and two free throws apiece by Bates and Hockenberry free throws brought the Panthers to within 73-70 at the 2:28 mark.

Lake Erie answered with two free throws, though, and the teams each swapped a free throw make as the Storm maintained a five-point lead in the final minute. Hockenberry hit a three with 1.4 seconds left on the clock to make it 76-74, but the Panthers could not come up with a steal on the inbounds pass.

ODU had a 45-24 advantage in rebounding and grabbed 18 offensive rebounds, but could only convert those into 11 second chance points.

Freshman forward Madi Rittinger (Dayton, Ohio) had nine points and sophomore guard Rachael Torey (Sterling Heights, Mich.) came off the bench with eight points and a career-high tying six rebounds.

Ohio Dominican returns home to host Tiffin at 5:30 p.m. on Monday.

Contact: Scott Miles
miless@ohiodominican.edu