Huskies Power Past Ohio Dominican Saturday Afternoon

• Box Score

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Michigan Tech women's basketball team led from start to finish Saturday on the way to a 75-59 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory at Ohio Dominican University. The Huskies exploded out of the gate with a 10-0 run to open the game and never looked back.

"This was an awesome win for us today and I'm extremely proud of how we played in the first half," Michigan Tech Head Coach Kim Cameron said. "It was our best half of the year so far and we are trying to get to the point where we can sustain that for 40 minutes. The energy we had as a team today and the way we came out and took away what they wanted to do on offense was special. The 10-0 run to start the game was a big boost for us, but we knew they would make a run and they did in the second half. I was really proud of our effort in the fourth quarter to close out the game."

Michigan Tech (6-2, 2-1 GLIAC) struck first when junior guard Sarah LewAllen drained a triple to get the offense rolling in the opening minute. It would be a sign of things to come for the Huskies who added seven more points before allowing Ohio Dominican (6-4, 2-2 GLIAC) to get on the board. Sophomore forward Elizabeth Kelliher dropped in a layup followed by a triple from redshirt junior Kelli Guy and a jumper from senior guard Morgan Anderson to make it 10-0 with 7:30 left in the first quarter.

Lauren Bates notched the first two points for the Panthers on a pair of free throws with just over seven minutes on the clock. ODU eventually closed the gap to 17-12 on an Alexis Overly trey at the 3:38 mark of the first frame. The Huskies then countered with seven of the final nine points of the quarter to bump the lead back to 10 points again at 24-14. Redshirt junior forward Brenna Heise dialed in a jumper to start the run, Guy contributed a triple and found the mark on another jump shot with 42 seconds left in the first.

Anderson and junior guard Lindsey Winter hit back to back triples to start the second quarter and just like that the Huskies were up by 16 points at 30-14. The Panthers trimmed their deficit to single digits again with 6:26 to play until the break when Alexis Overly tossed in a jumper to make it 30-21. However, Tech answered again when junior forward Hannah Stoll tipped in a basket off an offensive rebound and proceeded to add four more points on a layup and jump shot. Stoll's buckets gave the Huskies a 36-21 lead with 5:01 remaining in the half.

The Huskies put their stamp on the first half by closing the quarter with the final five points. Anderson dialed in a three-pointer and Guy picked off a pass and beat the buzzer with a jumper to cap the second quarter and give Tech a 48-27 lead.

The Panthers would make their run in the third quarter, clawing their way back to within nine points at 54-45 on a layup by Lindsey Blanford with 2:19 on the clock. Anderson stepped up with a couple of key baskets to keep ODU from getting closer. Anderson hit a triple and then a midrange jumper fell through the net to create a 59-45 advantage for the Huskies with 1:23 remaining in the third.

The Panthers hung around and were able to slice their deficit to nine points again at 59-50 right before the end of the third quarter. During the break between the third and fourth quarter, the Huskies regrouped and when play resumed a jumper by Heise and a layup from Anderson swung the momentum back on Tech's side.

ODU then made one final push to cut the divide to 68-59 on two free throws from Megan Eyre. However, those would be the final points of the game for the Panthers. Tech scored the last seven points on a trey by Guy and four free throws courtesy of LewAllen, Stoll, and Heise to seal the win.

Anderson guided the Huskies with 18 points and seven rebounds Saturday afternoon. Heise followed with 17 points and five boards while Guy rounded out the double digit scorers with 15 points, six rebounds, four assists, and four steals. Winter chipped in eight points and Stoll posted seven points and seven rebounds.

As a team, the Huskies connected on 29 of 65 shots from the field (44.6%), were 11 of 28 from three-point range (39.3%), and 6 for 10 at the free throw line (60.0%). Tech out-rebounded ODU 41-32 and recorded 18 of their points in the paint.

Lindsey Blandford led Ohio Dominican with 15 points, Eyre produced 11 points and Lauren Bates had an 11-point performance on Saturday. Bates also had six rebounds and four assists. The Panthers were 19 of 54 from the field (35.2%), 6 of 12 from three-point range (50.0%), and 15 of 16 from the free throw line (93.8%).

The Huskies will be back on the court Thursday night when they host Hillsdale in the SDC Wood Gym. The tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.