Ohio Wesleyan senior post Taylor Dickson lived the dream Saturday afternoon. She banked in a shot at the buzzer to give the Bishops an overtime victory over Oberlin.
“I knew when I let it go that it had a chance,” she said of her shot.
OWU ended a difficult four-game losing streak with a 78-77 victory at Branch Rickey Arena.
“We had a little bit of a struggle and played some really good teams,” Dickson said. “Seeing that reaction and seeing everybody having fun finally and getting rewarded emotionally was really cool.”
Dickson caught a pass from freshman Nicole Popovich, took two dribbles to her right on a curl before letting go of her game-winning shot.
“Winning in overtime and winning at home is enough, but that was a really important victory for us so our players could see the rewards of the hard work that we’ve put in,” Bishops coach Stacey Ungashick Lobdell said.
Popovich gave the Bishops the lead on the previous play with a driving lay-in with 26 seconds left.
Abby Andrews sank a pair of free throws with 8 seconds left to put the Yeowomen back on top.
Dickson finished with 16 points and five rebounds and led the team with four three-pointers.
Senior wing Megan Kuether led all scorers with 21 points and led the team with six rebounds and four assists and four steals for the Bishops.
“Taylor Dickson and Megan Kuether have done a really great job with leadership,” Ungashick Lobdell said. “That’s a lot of responsibility to lead 11 newcomers.
“Credit to them – they’ve been here three years, they’ve been through the grind and they’ve just completely stepped up their leadership and it’s made the difference up to this point.”
Junior wing Trischa Lacy overcame an otherwise difficult game to spark a 10-0 run with five points, two of which came on a layup off her own steal.
“Trisch did a great job of keeping her head in the game and hit the shot when she could … and if it wasn’t there, she was doing other things,” Ungashick Lobdell said.
Kuether followed with a steal of her own and a layup to give the Bishops the lead and Popovich found Dickson for another three from the left corner to push the lead to four with 4:53 left – OWU’s largest of the game.
Oberlin got layups by Alex Stipano and Taylor Parlor to take a 70-67 lead with 15 seconds left.
But Lacy, OWU’s leading scorer coming into the game, buried a three-pointer with seven seconds left to send the game to overtime.
Stipano led the Yeowomen with 20 points to go with four assists and three rebounds, Andrews finished with a double-double with 19 points and a game-high 11 boards and a pair of blocks and Parlor added 18 points, five assists and four rebounds.
Sarah Thompson had a game-high six assists for Oberlin, which took its first loss in league-play.
OWU had to battle back from a seven-point deficit in the first half to tie it 35-35 at the break.
OWU visits Denison in NCAC action Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.