The Ohio Wesleyan women’s basketball team got a little payback Friday night, avenging a pair of regular-season losses to Wittenberg with a 61-48 win in a North Coast Athletic Conference tournament semifinal Friday night in Greencastle, Ind.
The third-seeded Bishops (22-5) shared the NCAC’s regular-season championship with the Tigers (19-7) thanks to an 11-3 record. Two of those three conference losses came to Wittenberg, which swept the season series with wins of 70-66 and 76-73.
Ohio Wesleyan nearly came back from big second-half deficits on both occasions, slicing a 13-point deficit to just two in the final minutes of the first meeting before erasing an 11-point deficit only to fall three points short of completing the comeback in the second.
Friday, though, no such comeback was needed as the Bishops, who trailed 18-15 after the first quarter, outscored the Tigers in each of the final three quarters to pull away.
Karlee Ross hit a jumper for the first points of the second quarter and, after Wittenberg’s Raine Burton hit a jumper of her own, Elizabeth Homan connected on a three-pointer to get OWU back to even.
After a Tiger turnover, Lauren Denison hit a three to put Ohio Wesleyan up 23-20. Burton tied the game with a three a few possessions later, but Macy Miller finished off a three-point play the hard way with 1:20 left in the half to give OWU a 28-25 lead at the break.
Wittenberg’s Jade Simpson hit a three to give her team a 33-32 lead midway through the third, but Ohio Wesleyan closed the quarter on a 15-5 run to take a 47-38 lead into the final 10 minutes of action — a stretch it won 14-10 to smooth out the scoring summary.
Kasey Schipfer led the way with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Other OWU standouts included Alyssa Griner, who had 14 points; and Elizabeth Homan, who had a team-best nine assists.
Simpson led Wittenberg with 13 points while Burton had nine in the setback.
The win sets up a showdown with top-seeded DePauw in today’s NCAC tournament championship game.
