Yoder scores 23 in No. 7 Women's Basketball 96-83 loss to Baldwin Wallace

By: Andrew Korba

BEREA -- The No. 7 Ohio Northern women's basketball team fell in its OAC opener to Baldwin Wallace by a 96-83 score on Wednesday evening at Upsprung Gymnasium.

The Polar Bears are now 4-1 on the season and 0-1 in OAC play, while the Yellow Jackets move to 5-1, 1-0.

Senior Cenzie Yoder paced ONU with a season-high 23 points.

Junior Jordan Kimes added her second straight double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Sophomore Brooke Espenschied scored 16 points and senior Sara Kocian finished with 11 points, six assists and five rebounds.

Baldwin Wallace jumped out to a 12-7 lead, but ONU came back with a 6-0 run, capped off by an Espenschied hoop, to take its first lead of the game at 13-12.

The Yellow Jackets would respond with a 7-0 run and jump back in front 19-13 with just over 12 minutes to play in the first half.

BW would hold the lead for the rest of the half and took a 38-33 lead into the break.

A free throw from Espenschied cut the Yellow Jacket lead to 51-50, but BW would score the next four points to push its lead back to 55-50.

The Polar Bears used a 9-0 run, capped off by a Yoder layup, to jump in front 72-69 with 6:47 remaining.

But the Yellow Jackets used runs of 8-2 and 11-2 to pull away down the stretch.

Lexi Rohrbach led six Baldwin Wallace players in double figures with a game high 24 points.

The Polar Bears shot 34-of-68 (50.0 percent) from the field, while the Yellow Jackets were 35-of-62 (56.5 percent).

Both teams pulled down 33 rebounds in the game.

Ohio Northern will play next on Saturday, when it hosts John Carroll at 3 pm at the ONU Sports Center.