BOX SCORE
NEW CONCORD, Ohio – Visiting Capital outlasted Muskingum to hold onto first place in the Ohio Athletic Conference women’s basketball standings with a 63-60 road victory on Wednesday night.
With the win, the Crusaders (11-3, 8-1 OAC) opened up a two-game lead over a trio of competitors in the OAC standings at the midpoint of the conference schedule. Muskingum (11-5, 6-3 OAC), Mount Union (11-4, 6-3 OAC) and Capital’s next opponent Baldwin-Wallace (11-5, 6-3 OAC) are tied for second place. CU and B-W will meet in Berea on Saturday at 3 p.m.
The duo of junior Kristen Richardson (Oxford, Ohio/Talawanda HS) and senior Daniele Sanna (Pickerington, Ohio/Pickerington North HS) paced the Crusaders with 38 of the team’s 63 points.
Richardson finished with a team-high 20 points on 7-for-9 shooting from the field and 5-of-7 from the free throw line. She added two rebounds, two blocks, one steal and one assist.
Sanna made 7-of-14 shots from the floor to finish with 18 points on the night. She also had a team-high tying eight rebounds to go along with three steals, two blocks and one assist.
Fellow senior Caitlin Elsass (Batavia, Ohio/Clermont Northeastern HS) also pulled down eight rebounds while scoring eight points, dishing out five assists with two steals and one block while playing 39 minutes in the post for the Crusaders.
Overall, Capital hit on 45.1 percent of its shots (23-of-51) from the field while also making 14-of-21 shots from the free throw line. The Crusaders needed every basket in a close game that saw the Fighting Muskies drill 42.6 percent of their shots from the field while holding a 35-30 lead in rebounding and a 30-20 advantage at points in the paint.
In early going, the momentum went back and forth until Elsass hit a layup at the 9:16 mark of the first half to spark a 6-0 Capital run. Elsass followed with two free throws and Sanna drilled a pair from the charity stripe to put the Crusaders ahead 20-14 just 63 seconds later.
The lead would grow to as big as eight on two occasions for Capital and the Crusaders would take a six-point lead into the locker room at halftime behind first-half performances that saw Richardson tally 13 points and Sanna add 10 of her own.
Muskingum worked quickly to close the gap in the second half as the score was tied at 36-all at the 16:12 mark. It appeared as if the game would begin to seesaw again until Capital went on another big run sparked by a jumper from Sanna with 14:26 left. CU would follow with an 8-1 surge over the next 3:06 paced by two more baskets from Sanna to go on top 47-40 with 11:20 remaining.
Capital would work to build the lead to double digits on a three-point basket by Katy Lafferty at the 6:49 mark as was up by nine with 3:35 left until homestanding Muskingum would make one final surge. The Fighting Muskies would chip away at the Crusaders’ lead and pull to within a pair at 62-60 with 16 seconds left on a trey by Tiifany Youel. Youel would then steal the ball from the Crusaders but step on the baseline to give the ball back to CU with 10 seconds left. Richardson was fouled on the inbound pass and went to the free throw line. She made 1-of-2 shots from the stripe and Capital thwarted a last-second three-point shot by Muskingum to hold on for a 63-60 road victory.