Ohio Wesleyan 75, Denison 74

Feb. 28, 2003

	2003 NCAC Women's Basketball Tournament. Quarterfinals (at home sites) (1) Wittenberg 86, (8) Oberlin 46 (4) Allegheny 63, (5) Earlham 53 (3) Denison 58, (6) Wooster 54 (2) Ohio Wesleyan 51, (7) Kenyon 45 Semifinals -- Friday, Feb. 28 at Wittenberg Ohio Wesleyan 75, Denison 74 Wittenberg 95, Allegheny 27 Championship -- Saturday, March 1 at Wittenberg Wittenberg 72, Ohio Wesleyan 58

SPRINGFIELD -- Sophomore wing Kelly Heil (Sylvania/Southview) scored with :02 to play to lift the Bishops over Denison in semifinal action of the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament on Friday at Wittenberg.

The win moves the Bishops into the NCAC tournament championship game against Wittenberg. The championship game is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Saturday.


After senior post Mindy Hammond (Columbus/DeSales) hit a free throw to break a 70-70 tie with 3:08 remaining, Denison's Danielle Spring helped the Big Red overcome that 71-70 deficit to take a 74-71 lead. Spring hit 2 free throws with 2:22 to play, and on the Bishops' ensuing possession, Spring slapped the ball away from junior guard Krystal Sensabaugh (Wapakoneta), leading to a lay-in by Sarah Forbus with 2:17 to go.

Ohio Wesleyan went right to Hammond, but the Bishop senior missed a pair of free throws with 1:29 remaining. Denison ran the clock down to 1:04 before shooting, but Jessica McConnell's 3-pointer was off the mark and sophomore post Erica Brizendine (Grove City) cleared the rebound.

Sensabaugh then found Brizendine inside the paint, and Brizendine canned the lay-in to bring the Bishops within 74-73 with :44 to play.

Denison again tried to take time off the clock, but with the shot clock running out, Hammond knocked the ball loose from Spring on the left wing, and senior post Jennifer Heil (Sylvania/Southview) finally chased the ball down with :10 remaining.

Hammond took the inbounds pass, worked the ball up the right side, cut inside, and found Kelly Heil open underneath for the game-winning lay-in.

After a pair of timeouts, Kelly Heil picked off the inbounds pass to seal the win.

Denison led twice early in the game, taking leads of 4-3 and 6-5, but the Bishops came back and led for most of the first half. Ohio Wesleyan's biggest lead was 9 points, that coming at 20-11 on consecutive layups by Kelly Heil and Brizendine and then a Sensabaugh 3-pointer.

The Big Red answered with a 9-0 run that saw Casey Mohn score twice and Forbus drain a 3-pointer, and Denison eventually re-took the lead, breaking a 32-32 tie with baskets by Mohn and Emma Woodward.

The second half was much more tightly contested, with the biggest lead by either team being 4 points. The score was tied 9 times in the second half alone.

Denison built upon its 38-36 halftime lead with a Spring jumper to open the second half, but Ohio Wesleyan came right back to take the lead with a Hammond bucket, a Hammond free throw and a Brizendine basket that made the score 41-40 in favor of the Bishops.

Ohio Wesleyan built 4-point leads on 3 occasions, the first at 60-56 on a 3-pointer by Kelly Heil with 9:00 to play, the second at 62-58 after Woodward and Hammond traded points, and the third soon thereafter at 64-60 after Woodward and Kelly Heil traded points.

Denison came back with a pair of Ann Staubach free throws and a Woodward lay-in to tie the game at 64-64, and the teams continued to trade points until the 70-70 tie.

Heil led the Bishops with 28 points, while Hammond finished with 20 points and a team-high 6 assists. Brizendine added 12 points and led the Bishops with 7 rebounds.

Staubach led the Big Red with 17 points and 5 rebounds. Woodward and Forbus each contributed 10 points.

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