Women’s basketball team loses to Anderson 53-50

ANDERSON, Ind. – The Olivet College women's basketball team lost to the host Ravens 53-50 in the second game of the 2011 Anderson University Tip-off Tournament tonight at the O.C. Lewis Gymnasium in Anderson, Indiana. In the first game of the tournament, Calvin College defeated University of Cincinnati-Clermont (Ohio), 90-38. Olivet will play Clermont tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m.

Seven minutes into the game, Anderson led by seven points, 9-2. The Comets then went on a 13-0 run to take a 15-9 lead with 8:33 left in the first half. With 41 seconds left in the half, Olivet extended its lead to eight points (24-16) when junior Mellissa Bageris (Milford) drained her second three-pointer of the half. The Ravens answered with their own triple to make the score 24-19 at halftime.

The teams traded runs for almost the entire second half, with the biggest lead for both team's being five points. There were four tied scores and 11 lead changes. With 2:10 left in the game, Anderson had a 51-46 lead.

The Comets got two baskets from junior SoQuitta DeShazor (Flint/Hamady) to cut their deficit to one point, 51-50, at the 1:03 mark. The Ravens went down and scored to push their lead back to three. Olivet missed two three-pointers in the final 22 seconds.

Bageris and sophomore Rachael Wagner (Clinton Twp./Fraser) each scored 12 points to lead the Comets. The 12 points for Wagner was a career-high. DeShazor joined them in double figures with 11 points. Junior Brittany Brown (Inkster/John Glenn) pulled down a team-leading 10 rebounds. Sophomore Heather Lauwers (Ortonville/Brandon) grabbed nine rebounds.

For Anderson, Ashley Wuesterfeld led all scorers with 16 points. Katie Barwick had a double-double, 12 points and 11 rebounds, while Jenna Wittenberg scored 14.