Baldwin-Wallace Women's Basketball Team Defeats Cross-Town Rival Case Western Reserve, 69-64

BEREA, OHIO  – Sophomore Jessica Lairson (Louisville) scored 13 points as the Baldwin-Wallace College women's basketball team defeated cross-town rival Case Western Reserve University, 69-64, tonight (Tuesday, November  22, 2011) in the Ursprung Gymnasium inside the Lou Higgins Center. Lairson has led the team in scoring in all four games. 

With the victory, the Yellow Jackets improved to 3-1 on the season and Case fell to 2-2. 

In addition to Lairson, freshman guard Audrey Smolik (Strongsville) scored a career-high 14 points and junior forward Nancy Coulter (Washington Courthouse/Miami Trace) added a season-best 11 points.  Senior forward Catherine Spisak (Sandusky/St. Mary's Central Catholic) grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds and added four points.  The Spartans were led by Evy Iacono with a game-high 21 points.   

B-W opened the scoring on a layup by Coulter off the assist from Spisak at the 19:20 mark.

Case would take the lead (4-2) on a pair of jumpers by Erin Hollinger and Marissa Miles at17:42. 

The Yellow Jackets would go on a 5-2 run as junior wing Jessica Carpenter (North Canton/Hoover) would first hit a three-pointer and Smolik connected on a long range jumper at 16:18.

After exchanging basket for the next three minutes, the Spartans would tie the game (11-11) for the second time as Destinee Henton would split a pair of free throws with 13:04 remaining.

B-W would close out the half outscoring the Spartans 25-17 over the final seven minutes to take a 36-28 lead at the intermission. 

Case would open the second half on a 10-6 run to cut the lead to four points (46-42) on a jumper by Brooke Orcutt at the 15:04 mark.  The Spartans would cut the lead down to two points (52-50) when Emily Mueller would score on a layup at 11:21.

The Yellow Jackets would then go on a 7-2 run to increase their lead back to seven points (59-52) that was capped off by a pair of free throws by Smolik at 8:30. 

Undaunted, Case would outscore B-W 12-10 over the remainder of the game but could come only as close as three points on two occasions with the last coming on a layup by Iacono with three seconds remaining.

The Yellow Jackets are idle until after the Thanksgiving break.  B-W will next play on Wednesday, November 30 when it will travel to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to take on Carnegie Mellon University in a non-conference game in Skibo Gymnasium at 7:30 p.m.   The next home game is on Wednesday, December 7 when the Yellow Jackets play host to Heidelberg University in an Ohio Athletic Conference game in the Ursprung Gymnasium at 7:30 p.m.

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.