BEREA, OHIO – Senior All-OAC guard Amanda Schroeder (Columbus Grove) scored 20 points as the Baldwin-Wallace College women's basketball team defeated Ohio Athletic Conference and Cleveland cross-town rival John Carroll University, 78-64, tonight (Wednesday, January 5, 2011) in the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center in University Heights. The victory was B-W's third straight and eighth in its last nine contests.
With her 20 points, Schroeder remained in sixth place on the all-time Yellow Jacket scoring list with 1,081 career points and is now 17 points shy of former All-American Anjee Beard's (1996-2000) 1,198 points and fifth place.
In addition for B-W, now 10-2 overall and a perfect 5-0 in the OAC, freshmen forwards Jessica Lairson (Louisville) and Lexi Rohrbach (Tiffin/ Columbian) had 14 and 12 points, respectively, and sophomore guard Olivia French (Bucyrus/ Colonel Crawford) had 11 points. Lairson's 14 was a career-high and Rohrbach's 12 tied a career best.
For JCU, now 7-5 overall and 2-3 in the OAC, senior guard Lee Jennings led all scorers with 33 points and junior guard Emilee Ritchie had 14 points. B-W's win versus JCU was its seventh straight and 37th in the last 39 meetings and improved its all-time series advantage to 41-19.
In the first half, JCU jumped out to a 3-0 lead at the 19:32 mark when freshman forward Missy Spahar made a three-pointer. Following a B-W basket by junior forward Catherine Spisak (Sandusky/ St. Mary's Central Catholic) made the score 3-2, the Blue Streaks gained a 6-2 advantage when Ritchie made a three-pointer at 18:44.
The Yellow Jackets then outscored the Blue Streaks 10-6 to tie the score at 12-12 with 13:15 left when senior guard Ali Stack (Vermilion/ Firelands) made a jump shot. After the game was tied at 14-14 and 16-16, B-W went on a 5-0 run to take its largest lead of the first stanza at 21-16 at the 7:44 mark when Lairson made a layup, was fouled and converted the free throw. Then, following another Ritchie triple pulled JCU back to within two points at 21-19, Rohrbach converted one of two free throws at 6:55 and French made a layup to regain the five-point lead at 24-19.
Undaunted, JCU scored six straight points and took the lead at 25-24 with 4:15 left when Jennings made a pair of free throws. Following a lead change and four ties, B-W regained the lead at 36-32 when French made a layup. A JCU basket by freshman forward Hilary Liwosz 38 seconds before the intermission pulled the Blue Streaks back to 36-34 at halftime.
In the second half, B-W scored the first six points to take an eight-point lead at 42-34 with 17:16 let when Rohrbach made one of two foul shots. B-W extended its lead to double figures at 13 points at 50-37 with 14:44 left when sophomore guard Megan Frisina (Corry, Pa./ Corry Area) made a runner in the lane. JCU then cut the lead back to 10 points at 50-40 when Jennings made a basket, was fouled and then converted the three-point play with 14:35 left.
B-W then outscored JCU 19-12 to take its largest lead at 69-52 when Lairson made two foul shots at the 7:37 mark. The largest B-W lead of the game was 18 points on two separate occasions with the last with 5:29 left when French rebounded a missed shot and scored. The closest JCU would get after that point was 13 points on three separate occasions with the last time coming with 2:11 left in the contest.
The Yellow Jackets are back in action this Saturday, Jan. 8 when they host OAC-rival Capital University in the first game of a women's and then men's doubleheader at 2:00 p.m. in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium in the Lou Higgins Center in Berea. The B-W and Capital men tipoff at 4:00 p.m. In addition, fans can listen to all of the action on either campus radio station WBWC, 88.3 FM, or via the WBWC Internet web site at www.wbwc.com.
Two Yellow Jacket women's and men's basketball doubleheaders will be telecast on SportsTime Ohio this winter. The games are the January 29, 2011 twinbill versus Wilmington College and the February 19 doubleheader versus Ohio Northern University. In addition, the Jan. 29 women's game versus Wilmington is the Third Annual "Take a Kid to the Game" Day with the tipoff scheduled for 2:00 p.m. For more details, please visit the "Take a Kid to the Game" web site at www.bw.edu/athletics/takg11.
FOR MORE B-W Sports Information, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu. or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu Fans can access the latest B-W athletics information at www.bw.edu/athletics and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.