Junior guard Kasey Schipfer scored to tie the game at 57, but Wittenberg’s Taryn Cash scored with :04 left to give the Tigers a 59-57 North Coast Athletic Conference win over the Ohio Wesleyan women’s basketball team on Wednesday in Springfield.
Schipfer worked for a lay-in that evened the score with :08 in regulation time. After a timeout, the Tigers advanced the ball to the frontcourt and Cash fielded a pass from Jade Simpson and laid the ball in for the go-ahead bucket.
Junior guard Lauren Denison had a chance at a game-winning shot at the buzzer, but her attempt from just inside half-court was short.
Jazmyn Gaines-Burns sank a pair of 3-pointers and Evie Wolshire added a trifecta to help the Tigers build a 13-4 lead with 3:20 left in the opening quarter, but freshman guard Graci Semptimphelter scored 5 points and Schipfer added 4 as the Bishops closed to within 15-13 by the end of the period.
Ohio Wesleyan pulled even when a pair of Schipfer free throws knotted the score at 23 at the 3:22 mark of the second quarter, and the Bishops finally took the lead at 31-29 on another pair of Schipfer free throws with 7:32 remaining in the third period. Wittenberg scored the next 15 points, with Molly Scott scoring 6 consecutive points and Cash adding 4 more, to move out to a 44-31 lead, only to see the Bishops go on a 16-3 run that ended with a game-tying 3-pointer from sophomore guard Kelsey Wolfe.
Cash had 4 points during a 6-0 run that gave the Tigers a 53-47 lead with 3:22 left in regulation time, but the Bishops bounced back again, reeling off 7 straight points on a pair of Schipfer lay-ins and a 3-pointer from freshman guard Mia Guscoff that put Ohio Wesleyan ahead, 55-54, with :50 left in regulation time.
Jade Simpson converted a 3-point play with :35 left to give the lead back to Wittenberg before Schipfer’s game-tying lay-in.
Schipfer led the Bishops with 21 points and 7 rebounds. Junior guard Elizabeth Homan had a team-high 4 assists.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Ohio Wesleyan never quite found its form on the offensive end, scoring just 16 first-half points en route to a 58-47 North Coast Athletic Conference setback at the hand of host Wittenberg Wednesday night in Springfield.
The Bishops played well enough defensively to win. The shots just didn’t fall on the other end as OWU shot just 25.9% (15-for-58) from the field.
Jack Clement led Ohio Wesleyan with 16 points while Grant Spicer added five points and a team-high 10 rebounds.
Trey Killens had a game-high 22 points for Wittenberg.
