OWU Online | Sports Releases

Ohio Wesleyan 80, Wooster 62 (1/23/2002)

Sophomore post Tiffany Barbee (Detroit, Mich./Cass Technical) scored 8 consecutive points during a late 17-2 run that broke open a North Coast Athletic Conference win over Wooster on Wednesday at Branch Rickey Arena.

Trailing, 4-2, in the early going, the Bishops got 5 points apiece from junior post Mindy Hammond (Columbus/DeSales) and senior post Katy Sturtz (Worthington/Columbus Watterson) to fuel a 16-2 burst that gave the Bishops an 18-6 lead less than 7 minutes into the game.

But Wooster pecked away at the lead and closed to within 31-26 on a pair of buckets by Nara DeJesus. DeJesus scored twice more, and a 3-pointer by Molly Rallo and a Kirsten Lucas jumper closed the gap to 39-35 at halftime.

DeJesus scored again to bring Wooster within 2, but Hammond answered with 7 straight points and it appeared as though the Bishops would be on their way to their sixth straight win.

Wooster had other ideas, and the Fighting Scots came back to within 58-57 on Jen Flavin's drive along the right baseline with 10:02 to play.

Freshman wing Kelly Heil (Sylvania/Southview) then buried a 3-pointer for the Bishops, and after a Sturtz free throw and a DeJesus lay-in made the score 62-59, Bishops, Barbee took over. She hit a jumper from the lane, put back a missed shot and then hit 2 lay-ins off Sturtz feeds over a span of 3 minutes to ice the Wooster rally.

The Scots went nearly 6 minutes without scoring during that stretch, drawing a blank from DeJesus' lay-in with 7:36 left to a DeJesus free throw with 1:49 to play. Wooster did not get another basket until DeJesus hit a jumper with :06.6 remaining.

Hammond led the Bishops with 22 points, hitting 10 of 12 shots from the field. Heil finished with 19 points, Barbee had 14 points and Sturtz scored 12 points. Senior guard Michelle Wolfe (Gahanna/Lincoln) led the Bishops with 8 rebounds and shared the team lead with 4 assists, and senior guard Talia Brader (Westerville/Columbus DeSales) also shared the team lead with 4 assists.

DeJesus finished with 24 points on 11-of-12 shooting and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.