Olivia Waters posted Wilmington College's first double-double of the season as the Lady Quakers defeated Muskingum, 66-60, in Ohio Athletic Conference action at Fred Raizk Arena Wednesday night.
The win moves the Lady Quakers to 1-1 in OAC play, 2-2 overall. The Muskies are 0-1 in the conference, 4-2 for the season.
“I thought our effort level picked up from what it has been,” Wilmington head coach Jerry Scheve said. “Our execution was not very good, but some of the credit for that goes to Muskingum. They are a very hard-working team. They really got after it and forced a lot of mistakes on our part. We need to get better at taking care of the basketball, shooting the basketball and rebounding the basketball.”
Allie Meranda (Georgetown) knocked down three 3-point shots in the first 11 minutes of play as the Lady Quakers built a 20-11 lead. Wilmington turnovers, however, allowed the Muskies to stay in the game, which went to the break with Wilmington leading 30-28.
Muskingum got a triple from Traci Alt to open the second half and take a 31-30 lead. Amy Bricker (Waynesville) and Kortney Kin (Upper Sandusky/Riverdale) scored on consecutive possessions to put WC up, 35-31.
The Muskies tied the game at 39 when Suzanne Nichols scored at 15:00, but Wilmington answered with 12 unanswered points, the final three provided by Meranda’s fourth bomb of the night, to take a 51-39 lead.
The closest the Muskies got was within six points on four occasions as Wilmington snapped a two-game losing streak and halted Muskingum’s three-game winning wave.
Waters (Cincinnati/Purcell Marian) scored 11 points — nine in the second half — and pulled down game-high 13 rebounds in a hustling performance.
“Olivia only got to play five minutes in the first half, so she came in the second half fresh,” Scheve said. “She really dominated the game. I thought her offensive rebounds were the key to our putting a lead together. She’s not the tallest post player in the league, but she might be the strongest. She just out-fought some people for the basketball tonight, and that was key for us.”
Kin scored 16 points and collected seven rebounds. Meranda scored 13 while Bricker and Steph Prechtel (Wadsworth) added six and five points, respectively.
Wilmington out-rebounded Muskingum, 45-37.
“It’s as important as every other win. Every game we play is important. We’re still shooting for some high goals, and every win adds up the same,” Scheve said.
The Lady Quakers will travel to Alliance to face Mount Union 4 p.m. Saturday. The start time of the game was moved back an hour to accommodate Mount Union’s NCAA playoff game.
