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Ohio Wesleyan 75, Earlham 70 (2/9/2002)

Senior guard Talia Brader (Westerville/Columbus DeSales) sank a 3-pointer to put Ohio Wesleyan ahead to stay and junior post Mindy Hammond (Columbus/DeSales) and sophomore post Tiffany Barbee (Detroit, Mich./Cass Technical) each sank a pair of free throws in the closing seconds to hold off an Earlham comeback as the Bishops defeated the Quakers in North Coast Athletic Conference action on Saturday at Richmond, Ind.

Brader's 3-pointer broke a 64-64 tie and gave Ohio Wesleyan a 67-64 lead with 3:12 left in the game. Brader followed with a basket off a Quaker turnover that gave Ohio Wesleyan a 69-64 edge with 2:40 remaining, matching the Bishops' biggest lead of the game.

After the teams traded baskets, Earlham's Michelle Behler brought the Quakers within 71-69 by sinking a 3-pointer with 1:16 remaining, then cleared the rebound of an Ohio Wesleyan miss. The Quakers went inside to Summer Cress, who drew a foul and sank her first free throw but missed the second, leaving Earlham trailing by a 71-70 margin with :30 to play.

Hammond cleared the rebound of the missed free throw and was fouled almost immediately. The Bishop post sank both free throws to hike the lead to 73-70 with :27 to play, and after Behler missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer, Barbee snared the rebound, was fouled, and hit a pair of insurance free throws with :12 remaining.

Earlham had jumped to an early 19-10 lead, but the Bishops came back with a 10-2 burst on the strength of a 4-point play by freshman wing Kelly Heil (Sylvania/Southview) and a pair of Hammond buckets.

The Quakers built the lead to 7 points at halftime and still led by 7 early in the second half, but the Bishops pared the deficit to 1 point as Hammond scored twice and Heil nailed a 3-pointer to make the score 40-39 in favor of the Quakers. Ohio Wesleyan finally tied the game at 45-45 on a Heil jumper with 14:12 to play and led by as many as 5 points as Hammond and Barbee each hit a pair of free throws to give the Bishops a 51-46 lead with 11:13 left.

Barbee led the Bishops with 22 points, while Heil finished with 20 points and Hammond had 18 points and posted team highs of 9 rebounds and 4 assists.

Cress led Earlham with 33 points and Behler ended up with 14 points.