From Carnegie Mellon University Athletics
The Carnegie Mellon University women's basketball team closed play at the Ohio Wesleyan University Hoops for Hope tournament against the host Battling Bishops in a Saturday afternoon tilt with a 97-93 double-overtime victory. The Tartans improve to 8-3 on the season while the Battling Bishops drop to 1-10.
The Tartans trailed 34-31 at the break but used a 13-3 run to go up 44-39 after a layup by junior Jenn Mayberger (Chesterfield, Mo. / Cor Jesu Academy) less than four minutes into the second half. After the Battling Bishops knotted the game at 44, the Tartans used another double-digit run, this time 13-2, to take their largest lead of the game at 56-46 with 1:36 to play in the third quarter.
Ohio Wesleyan responded with a 10-0 run that spanned the final 1:15 of the third period and first 1:01 of the fourth to tie the game once again.
The rest of the fourth quarter was back-and-forth with five lead changes and three ties, including the swapping of three-pointers by sophomore Makayla Filiere (Chandler, Ariz. / Hamilton) for the Tartans and Tia Karras for Ohio Wesleyan as the game moved to overtime.
Overtime witnessed much of the same play and as time ticked down, Filiere gave the Tartans a three-point lead after hitting two free throws with 10 seconds to play. The Tartans blocked two shot attempts by the Bishops in the final seconds but the last rebound bounced out of bounds to the home team. Nicole Popovich found Elea Karras on the inbounds who drained a three-pointer to tie the game and send it to a second overtime.
Mayberger scored the first six points of the final stanza for the Tartans which gave them a 91-86 advantage with 3:04 to go. The lead would stay in the Tartans' favor as they countered a few made buckets by the Bishops and held on for the four-point win.
Mayberger recorded her first career double-double with a career-best 18 points and 11 rebounds. The junior also tallied six assists in the win and moved into fourth all-time with 286 for her career.
Filiere led the Tartans with 24 points while sophomore Katharine Higgins (Montclair, N.J. / Montclair) scored 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Also scoring a career-best was freshman Victoria Avery (Oakland, Calif. / Bishop O'Dowd) who dropped in 19 points before fouling out in the first overtime. Sophomore Linden Runels (Cedar Rapids, Iowa / John F Kennedy) recorded a career-best five rebounds and a career-high three assists off the bench for the Tartans.