Highlights

Lauren Bates Interview

NORTH CANTON, Ohio – Trailing 62-55 with less than five minutes to play, Ohio Dominican's women's basketball team rallied to score a 67-65 win at Walsh on Thursday night, moving into sole possession of second place in the GLIAC South Division.

It was the second straight fourth quarter comeback for the Panthers, who erased a nine point deficit last Saturday against Wayne State en route to a 111-106 double overtime win.

Tonight, it was a 12-3 run to close the game. A free throw by senior Melissa Scherpenberg  (Cincinnati, Ohio) and two transition layups by Darian Rose (Fort Loramie, Ohio) and Lauren Bates (Hilliard, Ohio) brought the Panthers to within 62-60 with 3:10 to play, and Bates' short jumper in the lane knotted the score at 62 with 2:10 left.

After a Walsh miss, Scherpenberg made a layup to give the Panthers a 64-62 advantage with 1:35 left, their first lead of the period.

Walsh made one free throw, but fouled Bates on the ensuing inbounds pass, and the junior sank a pair from the line to put the Panthers up 66-63 with 1:09 to play.

The Cavaliers made a layup with 54 seconds to draw within a point, setting up a sequence that saw the teams exchange turnovers, including two by ODU, to give Walsh the ball with 31 seconds left.

Walsh missed a three, received possession of the ball on the arrow after a tieup going for the rebound, and then missed a contested runner in the lane.

Madi Rittinger (Dayton, Ohio) grabbed that rebound and was fouled, splitting a pair, and Walsh's halfcourt heave at the buzzer hit the front of the rim, ending the game.

Ohio Dominican improved to 13-4 (8-3 GLIAC) with the win, while Walsh fell to 10-6 (7-4 GLIAC).

The Panthers shot 47.5 percent from the floor (28-of-59) and scored 42 points in the paint, but Walsh turned 20 ODU turnovers into 22 points to grab the lead in the game.

Bates notched her second double-double of the year with 16 points and a career high 12 rebounds. She also had four assists and three steals.

Rose came off the bench to chip in 12 points, Scherpenberg crossed the 1,000 career point plateau with her 11 tallies, and Rittinger grabbed 10 rebounds to also lead ODU.

The Panthers used a 10-0 run, spanning the end of the first quarter and early in the second, to take a 25-15 lead, with freshman Alexis Overly and sophomore Megan Eyre (Fayetteville, Ohio) each hitting triples in that stretch.

A 13-0 burst by the Cavaliers later in the period gave the hosts a 30-27 lead, but a triple by junior Kayla Cook (Westerville, Ohio) and baskets by junior Lindsey Blanford (Xenia, Ohio) and Rittinger helped send ODU into the locker room with a 34-33 lead.

ODU pushed the lead out to five, 42-37, on a Rittinger layup at the 7:37 mark of the third, and ODU maintained a five point lead with 2:11 left in the quarter. Walsh closed the period on a 10-2 run, though, taking a 53-50 lead into the fourth, and scored the first five points in the fourth to take their biggest lead at 58-50 with 7:21 left.

This was just the second time this season ODU has won when scoring less than 70 points.

Scherpenberg became the 21st member of the 1,000 point club in school history and now has 1,003 points in her career.

Ohio Dominican returns home to host Malone at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Contact: Scott Miles
miless@ohiodominican.edu