Big Fourth Quarter Leads Tartans to Wilmington College Tournament Championship

(WILMINGTON, Ohio) - A big fourth quarter where the Carnegie Mellon University women's basketball team outscored Wilmington College by 10 points led the Tartans to a 63-56 win in the championship game of the Wilmington Tip-Off Tournament. The 18th-ranked Tartans are now 3-0 on the season while the Fightin' Quakers fell to 2-1.

Senior Lisa Murphy (McLean, Va./McLean) led all scorers with 20 points and was named MVP of the tournament. Fellow senior Jackie Hudepohl (Saratoga, Calif./Lynbrook (Colgate)) also made the All-Tournament team despite an off shooting night where she tallied a season-low six points, but four of those came in the all-important fourth quarter. Hudepohl recorded a game-high 12 rebounds while sophomore Jenn Mayberger (Chesterfield, Mo./Cor Jesu Academy) scored a career-best 13 points.

The Tartans held an 18-13 lead at the end of the first quarter with junior Anna Novak (San Antonio, Texas/Alamo Heights) hitting her first two shots of the game and recording six points for the frame.

The Fightin' Quakers took their first lead of the game with 4:49 to play in the second quarter at 26-24 before Savannah Hooper's third three-pointer in two minutes gave the home team their largest lead at 29-24 one possession later.

A traditional three-point play by Murphy tied the game at 29-29 but Wilmington answered and ended up leading at the half, 37-35.

A back-and-forth third quarter kept the lead in the hands of the home team before the Tartans took the final lead of the game when Mayberger dropped in a shot from behind the arc with 7:55 to play, making the score 51-50.

The Tartans clinged to a one-point lead for more than three minutes before a steal and fastbreak layup by freshman Makayla Filiere (Chandler, Ariz./Hamilton) extended the Tartan advantage to 55-52 with 3:33 to go.

Hooper hit another three-pointer to bring Wilmington to within two, 58-56, with 34 seconds to go but the Tartans hit 5-of-6 from the free throw line down the stretch to go on to the seven-point win.

The Tartans will remain on the road and face Waynesburg University on Tuesday, November 22 at 6:00 p.m. for their next contest.