Oberlin, Ohio – The Oberlin College women's basketball team closed out its non-conference schedule with a 72-65 overtime victory over the Thiel College Tomcats on Friday night at Philips Gym.
 
Junior Maggie Gross led the charge with a career-best night as she scored 20 points and ripped down 18 rebounds. Alex Stipano added 18 points, while Cheyenne Arthur chipped in 12 points to complete a trio of Yeowomen in double figures.
 
Oberlin trailed 55-52 with just over eight seconds to play and were in-bounding the ball on the far sideline. A quick give-and-go play where Leo Ross threw it in to Olivia Canning and got it right back allowed them to raise up from the wing and bury the game-tying three. The Tomcats did have one last chance before the horn but stiff defense by the Yeowomen forced Alivia Sidley's shot off the mark.
 
The extra session started with a 10-2 Oberlin run that featured six points from Gross to make it a 65-57 Yeowomen lead with 1:53 left to expire. A 3-pointer by the Tomcats had the gap down to five but the Yeowomen were able to secure the game at the free throw line down the stretch.
 
Oberlin trailed 19-14 after one quarter and went into the halftime intermission down 33-29. The Yeowomen took their first lead of the game since the 2:53 mark in the first quarter when a pair of Stipano charity tosses made it 36-35 with 6:01 left in the third. In what proved to be a low-scoring session for both teams, the Tomcats ultimately carried a 41-38 edge into the final frame.
 
The Yeowomen went down by six early in the fourth quarter but a personal 6-0 spurt by Gross got the count back to even at 44-44 with 6:07 remaining on the clock. No more than three points would separate the two foes the rest of regulation. With under 30 ticks to go a layup from Canning cut the Thiel lead down to one at 53-52 but a pair of Sidley free throws extend the margin back out to three to setup the scene for Ross' game-tying triple-hit.
 
Both teams struggled from the floor as Oberlin shot just 35.5 percent (22-of-62) while the Tomcats finished at a 32.4 percent (24-of-74) clip. However, the Yeowomen were able to cash in at the charity stripe where they went 19-of-28 (67.9%) compared to Thiel's 7-of-14 (50%) showing. OC also won the battle of the boards, 50-42.
 
The victory moved Oberlin to 10-7 on the year and secured their fifth straight season with double-digit victories. Thiel heads back to Pennsylvania at 4-13.
 
The Yeowomen are back in action on Wednesday night at Kenyon College. Tip-time is set for 6 p.m.