Otto Tabs a Career-High 25 points in Loss at #10 Washington U.

(ST. LOUIS, Mo.) – The Carnegie Mellon University women's basketball team dropped a heartbreaker, 57-54, at No. 10 Washington University in St. Louis in University Athletic Association (UAA) play. Senior Liza Otto (Glastonbury, Conn.) scored a career-high 25 points for Carnegie Mellon who moves to 16-6 overall and 5-6 in UAA play while WashU is now 18-4 and 9-2.   

A slow shooting start for both teams led to a 4-2 edge for Carnegie Mellon.  Over the first six minutes, Carnegie Mellon converted 2-of-8 from the floor while WashU shot 1-of-11.  The Bears then converted three of their next four shots and led 9-4 with three minutes to play in the quarter.

A three-pointer by Otto to open the second quarter knotted the score at 11-11. Otto's triple was her second of the game and fueled a 9-0 run by the Tartans to start the quarter which put them ahead 17-11 with 6:23 showing on the clock.  The Tartans held the lead the rest of the half and grabbed their largest lead, 25-17, on a layup by Otto with two minutes to play.

Carnegie Mellon's lead was cut in half at the break, as the Tartans led 27-23.  Otto led all scorers with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting at halftime.  Carnegie Mellon shot 45.8% from the floor during the first twenty minutes while holding the Bears to 29.4%.

WashU started the third quarter on a 7-1 run and took a 30-28 lead.  Carnegie Mellon responded and scored 10 straight points and led 38-30.  Otto continued to have the hot hand, as she drained two three-pointers from the corner in the closing minutes of the quarter along with a pair of foul shots by junior Lisa Murphy (McLean, Va./McLean) to put the Tartans ahead 49-38 after three.

Sophomore Zoe Zawisa (Baltimore, Md /Bryn Mawr) started the scoring in the fourth quarter with a three-pointer to give the Tartans their largest lead of the game at 52-38.  The Bears answered, scoring the next 17 points to take a 55-52 lead with 1:32 to play. The last six Bear points during the run came on back-to-back three-pointers by Zoe Vernon.

Otto pulled the Tartans to within a point at 55-54, but Vernon sealed the victory with a pair of foul shots with 10.2 seconds left.

Carnegie Mellon shot 45.7% from the floor and WashU shot 32.8%.  The Tartans turned the ball over 28 times which resulted in 28 Bear points while Carnegie Mellon forced nine WashU turnovers and scored eight points of the mishaps.  The Tartans held the edge on the glass, 43-29, with Murphy grabbing a game-high 11.   Junior Jackie Hudepohl (Saratoga, Calif./Lynbrook (Colgate)) hauled down 10 in the setback and scored nine points.  Murphy was held to a season-low eight points.

Carnegie Mellon returns home on Friday, February 19 to play Emory University.  Tip is set for 6:00 p.m. on the hardwood of Skibo Gymnasium.