Morgan Dumbaugh's late basket lifts Women's Basketball past #25 Otterbein 52-50

WESTERVILLE — A basket with five seconds to go from junior Morgan Dumbaugh gave the Ohio Northern women's basketball team a 52-50 victory at No. 25-ranked Otterbein at the Rike Center on Wednesday night.

With the win in Ohio Athletic Conference play, ONU improves to 7-1 overall (2-0 OAC), while the Cardinals suffer their first defeat and fall to 6-1 overall (1-1 OAC).

Dumbaugh scored the final three ONU points and junior Joanna Snyder scored a career and game-high 20 points on 9-of-15 shooting to guide the Polar Bears.

Sophomore Cenzie Yoder added 12 points and senior Kara Dysert recorded four points, 11 rebounds and five blocks in Northern's winning effort.

For Otterbein, Rachel Snedegar totaled 11 points and 13 rebounds, both team-highs, to lead the squad.

Trailing 46-45 with 3:35 to play, Snyder scored on back-to-back layups to give ONU a 49-46 lead.

Otterbein's Tabatha Piper sank two free throws before Dumbaugh answered with a free throw of her own, making it a 50-48 game with 33 seconds remaining.

Shea McCoy scored on a layup for the Cardinals to tie the game at 50-50 with 21 seconds to go, but an ONU timeout led to Dumbaugh's layup with just five seconds remaining.

Despite a timeout, Otterbein was unable to get a shot off at the conclusion of the game.

The Cardinals took command of the game early on, scoring the first 15 points and leading 17-2 eight minutes into the contest.

ONU chipped away at the lead for much of the half, before finishing the half on a 7-0 run, including four points from Yoder, to cut the halftime deficit to 25-24.

The second half was a constant back-and-forth battle, with 15 lead changes and five ties, neither team able to take a lead of more than three points in the entire half.

The Polar Bears had a slight shooting advantage, going 20-of-56 from the field (35.7 percent) compared to Otterbein's 17-of-61 (27.9 percent).

Both teams committed 22 turnovers, and the Cardinals had a 47-42 advantage in rebounds.

Ohio Northern will look to continue its five game winning streak as the team travels to John Carroll on Saturday for a 3 p.m. game.