Greencastle, IN – The Oberlin College women's basketball team gave the No. 4 ranked Tigers of DePauw all they could handle but in the end the longtime national power was able to pull away for a 71-61 victory on Saturday afternoon at Neal Fieldhouse.
The Yeowomen defense kept the Tigers' Sydney Kopp and Claire Keefe in check as they shot a combined 6-of-23 from the floor. Offensively, six different Yeowomen finished with eight or more points with Jasmine Sorrells being the lone Oberlin player in double figures with 10 points. The backcourt pairing of Ally Driscoll and Cheyenne Arthur each posted nine tallies. Maggie Gross, who had a game-high nine rebounds, matched Sammy Spanier with eight points.
The Yeowomen went toe-to-toe with the national power throughout the first half and carried a 36-34 lead into the intermission. A traditional 3-point play by Sorrells gave the Yeowomen a 14-13 lead with 2:24 left in the opening quarter and the Yeowomen would go on to end the frame with long-range connections by Spanier and Leo Ross to make it a 20-15 lead.
Less than four minutes into the second period, a slashing layup from Driscoll stretched the Oberlin advantage out to 10, 29-19, but a 10-0 Tigers' response run quickly evened the count. A pull-up jumper from Arthur halted a four-minute scoring drought by the Yeowomen as they pushed the margin out to five before settling for just the two-point advantage at the intermission.
It was more back-and-forth action throughout the third quarter as no more than two points separated the two foes throughout the period. A Rowan Smith 3-pointer made it a 39-37 Yeowomen lead with 8:17 left in the stanza but neither team could create significant separation as the Tigers ultimately carried a slim 49-48 lead into the final frame.
DePauw would start to pull away by scoring the first eight points of the fourth quarter and eventually increased the gap to 64-54 with four minutes to go and the Yeowomen were unable to threaten down the stretch.
The loss dropped Oberlin back to 7-12 overall and 4-6 in the NCAC while the Tigers moved to 19-1 and remained unblemished in the league at 11-0.
The Yeowomen are back in action on Wednesday night at Ohio Wesleyan University. Tip-time is set for 6 p.m.
