Albion, MI – The Oberlin College women's basketball team nearly erased a 14-point third-quarter deficit, but Lindsey Bernhardt's NBA-range 3-point attempt in the closing seconds fell a little short to allow the Rose-Hulman Engineers to hang on for a 57-54 win over the Yeowomen on Saturday afternoon.
 
Bernhardt still finished with a career-high 29 points on 10-of-20 shooting, but surely wishes she had gotten to 32 to potentially send the game to overtime. First-year Alex Stipano added 18 points off the bench on 7-of-13 shooting, which included a 3-of-5 showing from beyond the arc.
 
However, the remainder of the team was never able to get going as the 10 others players to see time on the floor combined to make just three field goals for the Yeowomen.
 
Both teams suffered shooting woes in the first two periods as Oberlin made eight of 31 attempts for a 25.8-percent success rate. The Engineers matched the Yeowomen with eight makes on 34 shots (23.5 %).
 
No more than four points separated the two teams during the opening half. Oberlin held an early 10-7 lead, but Rose-Hulman scored six of the final eight points of the opening period to lead 13-12. The Yeowomen and Engineers would combine for just 15 points in the second quarter as Rose Hulman took a 21-19 cushion into the locker room at the intermission.
 
Rose Hulman created separation, starting the third period with a 10-0 run to open up a 31-19 advantage.  They would ultimately extend gap out to 14, 36-22, with 3:12 left in the quarter, but a 9-3 Oberlin spurt that featured a pair of threes from Stipano and one from Bernhardt got the deficit down to eight, 39-31, heading into the fourth quarter.
 
The first two minutes of the period didn't go Oberlin's way as the Engineers reestablished a 13-point lead. In the final five minutes, three consecutive free-throw makes and a traditional 3-point play from Stipano got the Yeowomen within four, 52-48, with 4:08 left on the clock.
 
After falling behind by as many as seven, back-to-back triple-hits from Bernhardt made it just a one-point game, 55-54, with just under two minutes left to play. A pair of charity tosses pushed the lead back out to three and the two teams would go on to miss on their next possessions.
 
First-year Olivia Canning corralled a missed layup with 10 seconds to go, giving Oberlin hope. Bernhardt popped open off the in-bounds play, but may have been a little too deep as her long-range attempt hit the front of the rim and was secured by Rose-Hulman.

The Yeowomen, who fell to 2-2 with the loss, will return home to host local rival Baldwin Wallace on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. All fans are encouraged to bring a teddy bear to throw onto the court at halftime to be donated to the Blessing House in Lorain, Ohio.