Hiram, Ohio – The Oberlin College women's basketball team led by as much as 15 and held a six-point lead going into the fourth quarter, but could not make it stand up as the Hiram College Terriers rallied for a 53-50 win over the Yeowomen on Saturday afternoon.
Turnovers were a problem once again, especially in the fourth quarter as the Yeowomen committed nine of their 34 miscues in the final 10 minutes of play.
Using a full-court press, Hiram edged closer in the third quarter, getting to within two on multiple occasions with the last time coming courtesy of an Erica Johnson layup that made it a 34-32 game. However, a three-ball from
Lindsey Bernhardt was sandwiched by jumpers from
Tyler Parlor and Sabrina Delonibus to push the lead back out to nine. The third-quarter scoring would close on a 3-pointer from Allison Vannoy that had the Terrier deficit down to six, 41-35, going into the final frame.
A pair of free throws from Kaylee Shockley with 3:53 left to play gave the Terriers their first lead of the game at 43-41. The Hiram run would continue over the next 90 seconds as they increased their advantage out to eight, 49-41, with 2:20 left on the clock and the Yeowomen still in search of their first points of the quarter.
Oberlin would finally come back to life as Bernhardt's 3-pointer with a minute remaining made it a 1-point game at 49-48. Back-to-back buckets with an Oberlin turnover in-between had the Hiram lead back out to five. Berhardt would cash in a pair of clutch free throws to make it a one-possession game and then the Yeowomen defense forced a turnover to give themselves a chance to tie it with a 3-pointer.
However, Bernhardt's first attempt with the clock ticking down was off the mark and she chased down her own rebound, but Johnson blocked her long-range follow attempt from the corner as the Terriers completed the heist.
In the final quarter, Hiram out-scored Oberlin 18-9, doing most of its damage at the charity stripe where they were a perfect 10-for-10. In all, the Terriers hoisted 19 free throws with 15 makes for a 78.9 percent success rate. The Yeowomen went to the line just four times in the game – making all four.
Bernhardt led Oberlin with 16 points, while
Abby Andrews added 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting to go along with five rebounds. Parlor ripped down 10 boards and matched
Olivia Canning with six points.
The loss marked the sixth straight for the Yeowomen as they fell back to 10-13 and 4-10 in the NCAC. Hiram evened up its record at 12-12 and is now 6-9 in league action.
Oberlin never trailed in the opening half, building up its 12-8 lead after one quarter out to 11, 19-8, after starting the second period with a 7-0 spurt that featured a 3-pointer from Bernhardt and layups by Andrews and
Katie Lucaites.
Later in the frame another Bernhardt triple-hit ballooned the Yeowomen cushion out to 15 at 24-9, but the Terriers clawed back to within six and ultimately trailed by just eight at the break, 26-18.
Oberlin shot an impressive 53.8-percent in the game, knocking down 21 of its 39 shot attempts. However, those attempts were extremely limited due to their inability to take care of the basketball.
While highly effective at the free throw line, Hiram shot just 28.3-percent from the floor with 17 makes on 60 attempts – 21 more than the Yeowomen.
Oberlin out-rebounded Hiram 36-27 and out-scored them 24-18 in the paint. However, the Terriers bench unit bested its Oberlin counterparts 43-10 while as a team they netted 27 points off of turnovers.
The Yeowomen will look to end their woes on Wednesday night when they host Ohio Wesleyan at 6 p.m. Bernhardt, Lucaites and fellow senior
Caroline Hamilton will be honored prior to tip-off and the team will also be sporting pink for its annual Play 4 Kay breast cancer awareness game.
