On a night meant for honoring their senior leaders, a win could also move the women’s basketball team toward a crucial bye in the first round of the looming OAC tournament.
With a 78-60 victory over visiting Marietta, the team did just that, moving into the top four of the OAC standings and giving the seniors a win to end their final regular season.
Seniors Hilary Kuhns and Shalena Hawkins put in important shifts in their senior night, scoring 14 points and pulling down four rebounds each.
Kuhns also hit a critical three point shot (one of only two in the game) at the end of the first half to bring the Crusaders within two points.
Despite the deficit at the half, the Crusaders came out of the halftime break on fire, and after a 10-2 run to start the half, they never gave the lead back.
The Crusaders got the help they needed from their OAC rivals Mount Union, who defeated Baldwin-Wallace 65-58 Wednesday.
The Baldwin-Wallace loss broke the tie between the Crusaders and the Yellow Jackets, whose loss took them to 10-7, one win back of Capital’s 11-6 conference record.
At the Capital Center, the women got double-digit points from four players on the evening, including junior forward Jamie Caton’s 17 points from the bench, leading the way for the Crusaders.
Sophomore guard Cookie Geroski grabbed a game-high ten crucial rebounds for the women, easily outdoing her season average of less than six.
Rebekah Will gave the Crusaders an equally important 14 points, nearly five more than her season average.
Capital can now clinch a first round bye in the OAC with a victory Saturday against seventh place Muskingum Fighting Muskies.
The win would be the team’s third in a row, and fourth in their last five contests.
Meanwhile, Baldwin-Wallace needs a win over second place Ohio Northern to stay in the running for fourth place.
The Crusaders beat Ohio Northern in their Dec. 21 meeting with a convincing 83-64 score, one of only three Polar Bear defeats in OAC play this season.
