Otto's Double-Double Leads Tartans to 66-54 Victory

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) - The Carnegie Mellon University women's basketball team won its seventh game of the season with a 66-54 win over Westminster College, behind a double-double from freshman Liza Otto (Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury) and three others scoring in double digits. The Tartans improve to 7-2 on the year while the Titans fell to 4-7.

Otto had seven of her first-half 10 points at the beginning of an 18-0 run by the Tartans that put the home team up 32-17 with two minutes to go in the first half. Senior Emily Peel (Long Valley, N.J./West Morris Central) scored six straight in the same run to equal her first-half output before leading the Tartans with 14 points for the game.

Prior to the 18-0 run by the Tartans, which spanned a nine-plus minute drought by the Titans, Westminster countered an 11-0 run by Carnegie Mellon with a 10-0 run to hold a 17-14 lead at the near mid-point of the first stanza. Freshman Amanda McHenry (Branchburg, N.J./Somerville) had seven points during the Tartans' first run.

Westminster came out of the break hot pulling back even with the Tartans at 42-42 after a 20-4 run covered nine minutes.

Carnegie Mellon shot just 1-of-11 to open the period and turned the ball over 10 times before freshman Lindsay Poss (Poolesville, Md./Poolesville) hit a three-pointer with 9:35 to go which regrouped the Tartans who never lost the lead again.

Two fast break layups by the Tartans followed the three-pointer by Poss as sophomore Gabrielle West (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mount Notre Dame) hit two free throws and a trey assisted by Poss to put the Tartans back up by 10, 54-44, two minutes later.

Carnegie Mellon then cruised to the 66-54 victory.

Otto finished the game with 12 points and 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the year while junior Jacquie Shaw (Portland, Ore./Grant) finished with 12 points and West tallied 11 off the bench. West dished out six assists and grabbed four steals while Shaw had four assists and three steals.

Peel, who is 30 points away from scoring 1,000 for her career, also grabbed eight rebounds and had three blocked shots.

The Titans were led by Jenn Cantella's 15 points while Katie Hughes scored 12 and grabbed nine boards.

Carnegie Mellon will play again on Sunday, December 30 when Chatham University visits Skibo Gymnasium at 2:00 p.m.