NORTH MANCHESTER, IND. – Two scrappy interregional foes put on a wild and woolly show for a crowd of almost 300 at Stauffer-Wolfe Arena during the final contest of night one of the 2017 Manchester University Main View Tip-Off Friday, Nov. 17.

In the end, junior forward/center Beth Schaefer (Fort Wayne, Ind.) grabbed her eighth rebound off a miss and put it back in with just 5.3 seconds remaining for a 56-55 lead. OWU had two chances in the final moments with the first going out-of-bounds and the second being stolen away by sophomore guard Haley Farris (Sharpsville, Ind.) who dribbled out the clock for the victory. MU's fifth appearance in its home season-opening tournament championship contest over the last six years occurs Saturday, Nov. 18, at 3 p.m. against D3Hoops.com No. 11-ranked UW-Oshkosh, as the Titans dispatched of Ohio Athletic Conference member Otterbein 77-48 in game one.

The Spartans battled North Coast Athletic Conference foe Ohio Wesleyan University back and forth over 40 frenetic minutes on the Stan Weller Court honoring Coaches Hoffman and Wolfe. Coach Josh Dzurick's crew held a six-point lead late in the first half, but the Battlin' Bishops proved just that with a 10-3 run for a 31-30 advantage. Freshman guard Carli Skinner (Anderson, Ind.) got the home crowd to its feet canning a long three-pointer right before the halftime buzzer for a 33-31 home team advantage. Duzrick's bunch built the edge back out to five (50-45) after three but an early fourth quarter scoring drought enabled OWU to regain the lead by as much as three (55-52) to set up the ending.

Sophomore guard Nicole Weaver (Fort Wayne, Ind.) turned in a stellar evening with 15 points, three assists and three steals with a large share of her points contribution occurring from outside the arc with four treys. Schaefer wound up with 12 points and eight rebounds.