Saturday women: Capital claws closer

More news about: Capital | Trinity (Texas)
Jan 23, 2016
Kristen Thompson led the Crusaders in scoring on the day they gave out a trading card in her honor.
 File photo by Capital athletics

No. 17 Capital beat No. 11 Ohio Northern 58-45 on Saturday afternoon, earning a split of their regular season series and pulling within a game of first place in the OAC.

Capital jumped in front of the Polar Bears 17-7 after the first quarter and held that lead the rest of the game. The Crusaders held Ohio Northern 28 points below its season scoring average on 28 percent shooting (14-for-50). Kristen Thompson scored 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds on the afternoon that Capital gave out a Kristen Thompson trading card. Capital (15-2, 8-2) trails Ohio Northern (14-3, 9-1) by a game with Baldwin Wallace and Mount Union two games back.

No. 25 Trinity (Texas) used a late 9-0 run to turn a potential loss into a big win as the Tigers rallied past Austin, 57-53. Kendall Heitmeier made back-to-back baskets to put Austin up by five with four minutes to play. The Tigers responded with baskets by four different players on the next four possessions. Trinity now has a two-game lead on Austin and will host the Kangaroos next Saturday.

In early finals, Hope overcame an off shooting performance to battle past Trine, 65-61. Elizabeth Perkins helped the Flying Dutch thwart the Thunder's upset bid by scoring 10 of her game-high 14 points in the second quarter.

No. 10 Tufts finished its game against Connecticut College with a 15-0 run to storm past the Camels, 56-47. The Jumbos have won 10 straight since losing to Conn College 61-55 in December. Since today's game is the only one that counts in the NESCAC standings, Tufts is 6-0 in conference.

Colby hung relatively close to No. 2 Amherst before the Lord Jeffs pulled away from the White Mules, 62-37. Colby trailed by four at the half before Ali Doswell scored 12 of her 14 points in the second half.

No. 19 UW-Stevens Point ground out a 55-48 win at UW-La Crosse. Mickey Roland notched 19 points in 26 minutes for the Pointers. No. 12 UW-Whitewater outscored UW-Eau Claire 9-1 down the stretch and edged the Blugolds 54-52. It was a critical win for the Warhawks who had dropped three of their last four and fallen two games behind the tri-leaders in the WIAC standings.

Jaryn Fajardo's layup kept Chapman in the SCIAC title hunt and put Cal Lutheran in second place for now.
 Chapman athletics file photo 

Jaryn Fajardo's layup with seven seconds left lifted Chapman over Cal Lutheran 65-63 and knocked the Regals out of first place in the SCIAC. The Panthers snapped Cal Lutheran's 12 game winning streak and put them a half game behind idle Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

Other than Hope and Amherst, only one of the other four undefeated teams played on Saturday afternoon. That was Bluffton who started the second half of the HCAC season with a 75-56 win over Franklin. The Beavers (17-0, 10-0) swept their regular season series with the Grizzlies for the first time.

The University of New England stayed unbeaten in the CCC, but it wasn't easy. The Nor'easters edged Western New England 68-66 in overtime. Alicia Brown had 20 points, including the game-winning jump shot in the final minute of overtime.

WPI extended its winning streak to 14 games with a 63-57 victory at Clark. WPI has a half-game lead on MIT which breezed past Smith 66-34.