Oilers Dominate Undersized Yellow Jackets on the Road
Cedarville, Ohio – The University of Findlay women's basketball team took care of business on the road on Monday, Jan. 31, picking up an important 68-58 victory against the Cedarville Yellow Jackets. Despite trailing at the midway point, Findlay stuck to it's game plan, outscoring the Jackets by 12 in the second half to pick up the victory. With the win, the Oilers improve to 7-11 on the season and are still in the hunt for postseason play, now at 5-7 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC). Cedarville, meanwhile, falls to 12-6 overall and will slide down into the sixth and final spot in the standings at 7-6 with one month of play remaining.
From the end of the first half to the beginning of the third quarter, Cedarville went on an 11-0 run and appeared to be taking control of the game, but with the score at 38-31 in favor of the home team, Findlay went on a 17-6 run of their own to close out the quarter and owned a 48-42 lead with ten minutes remaining. Over that run, the Oilers held the normally hot-shooting Yellow Jackets to just 3-of-12 from the floor including 0-of-6 from deep.
Cedarville would pull within three at 56-53 with four-and-a-half minutes remaining, the Oilers, who physically dominated the undersized Yellow Jackets for the entirety of the contest, would outscore the home squad 12-8 over the remaining time to pick up the ten-point victory.
It was clear domination in all facets of the game on Monday as the Oilers, who led more than 27 minutes in the game, played outstanding defense and rebounded the ball well en route to an impressive road win. Cedarville, which came in averaging 71 points per game and ranking second in the league in three-pointers made, was held to just 31.7% (20-of-63) from the floor and 28.6% (12-of-42) from three-point range.
Findlay's big advantage on paper was its' height and that showed on Monday night as the Oilers outscored Cedarville 44-to-16 in the paint and grabbed a season-high 51 rebounds while allowing just 23 rebounds to the Yellow Jackets. Findlay also protected the ball well, committing just 13 turnovers, the second-lowest total of the season.
The dynamic duo of seniors Bridget Landin and Sydney Kin was on full display Monday as the two forwards stole the spotlight in a showdown of G-MAC foe. The two combined for more rebounds than Cedarville had as a team, collecting 25 rebounds as a pair. Landin was the headliner as she poured in a season-high 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting while grabbing 12 rebounds, six offense and six defensive. She also led the team with a trio of assists, two blocks, and two steals.
Kin also picked up a double-double by scoring 15 points on the strength of a 9-of-12 performance from the charity stripe. Kin had a game-high 13 rebounds, ten of which came on the defensive end.
Senior Paige Bellman chipped in six points and six rebounds off the bench while junior Serena Sammarone scoring six points and had three rebounds.
Cedarville was led offensively by Emily Chapman and Paige Garr who each scored 11 points while Karli Anker and Taylor Strock each scored ten.
Monday's win was the 300th in the career of Oilers head coach Jim Wiedie who had 166 wins in ten seasons at Indiana State and now has 134 in nine years at Findlay.