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COLUMBUS – The Capital University women’s basketball team combined a strong performance on defense with a timely offensive effort Tuesday, defeating Baldwin-Wallace 63-54 in an Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament quarterfinal at the Capital Center.
The Crusaders (18-8) advance to the OAC tournament semifinals, where they will face top-seeded Mount Union on Thursday in Alliance, Ohio.
Capital, the No. 4 seed, shot 51.9 percent in the second half and knocked down 12-of-18 free throws in the period to hold off the fifth-seeded Yellow Jackets (17-10), who played in their third game in four days after knocking off Marietta on Monday in the first round.
Hampered by foul trouble in the first half, sophomore Cookie Geroski (Fostoria, Ohio; at left) scored 15 of her team-high 19 points in the second half to lead the Crusaders. Senior Hilary Kuhns (Fairfield, Ohio) and sophomore Jamie Caton (Hilliard, Ohio) added 10 points apiece, including several timely baskets.
“I was able to be aggressive offensively,” Geroski said. “When I drove to the bucket, I drew some fouls and we hit some free throws.”
In a physical, hard-fought battle, Capital took the lead for good at the 13:21 mark of the first half, never allowing Baldwin-Wallace to gain momentum on either end of the floor.
“The game was exactly what I thought it was going to be – a physical, defensive-oriented game,” Capital coach Dixie Jeffers said. “We played well on the defensive end … when we got Cookie back on the floor in the second half, the tempo picked up and we knocked down our free throws.”
Capital led 22-18 at the half, paced by Kuhns’ five points. In the second, the offense picked up on both ends as the two teams traded baskets through the first 10 minutes of play. After the Yellow Jackets narrowed their deficit to three with 9:53 on the clock, the Crusaders put together an 8-0 spurt, highlighted by a pair of long jumpers from Kuhns, to take a 50-39 advantage with 7:09 remaining.
From that point, Capital knocked down 9-of-12 from the free throw line to seal the win.
“It’s hard to play pretty at this time of year, especially when the teams know each other so well,” Jeffers said. “You have to grind it out, and that’s what we did. I thought Cookie was great in the second half and Hilary hit some huge shots.”
Baldwin-Wallace, which entered the contest as the league’s second-ranked 3-point shooting team, knocked down just 2-of-12 from distance.
“They have strong outside shooters, so we hoped to make them drive,” Geroski said. “At the beginning they got around us and we fouled too much, but once we settled in, I think we were effective.”
During the regular season, the Crusaders were swept by Mount Union, which is ranked sixth in the latest D3hoops.com Top 25 Poll. The Purple Raiders knocked Capital out of the tournament last season.
“We have to go in with an attitude that we have nothing to lose Thursday,” Jeffers said. “We know we can play with them … we were one of the few teams to play them well at their place. We just have to go out and play.”