ROCKFORD, Ill. – A nearly flawless first half gave way to a nearly disastrous second half, but the Edgewood College women's basketball escaped with a 75-73 overtime victory over Rockford University on Saturday afternoon. Edgewood College built a 16-point lead, but gave it all away before Rachel Pope scored five of the Eagles seven points in overtime for the victory.
Edgewood College (10-12, 9-8 NACC) displayed a fast tempo in the first half, pouring in 21 points in the first 6:30 of the game for an early 21-16 lead. Jazmin Little provided some long distance punch in the first half, draining three three-point baskets and adding a conventional three-point play. The Eagles made 10 of the first 13 shots and finished the first half at 50 percent. Sammy Gander scored a layup at the buzzer for a 46-33 Eagles lead at halftime.
The second half seemed to be in cruise control early on. The Eagles extended their lead to 16 points at 53-37 after a Mariah Hill layup and free throws from Sierra Jiran and Pope. In fact, the Eagles still led 59-44 with 11 minutes left after a layup from Ellyn Hayden, before it nearly fell apart.
Rockford University (5-17, 4-13 NACC) got their offense rolling with a three-pointer from Callie Rezin and a three-point play by center Katie Clark. Clark would be crucial to the Regents comeback, finishing with 28 points on 12-for-14 shooting. The Eagles would miss their next nine shots in a row as Rockford cut the margin all the way down to four points. Courtney Spangler made two free throws for a 68-62 lead with 3:07 to play in regulation, but Rockford would score three baskets while Edgewood College committed four turnovers down the stretch to send the game into overtime.
Pope started the extra session with a steal and a layup and Jiran sank two free throws for a quick 72-70 lead. After Rockford's Casey Pettit scored a three-point play, Pope answered with one of her own for a 75-71 Eagles lead. Clark scored a pair of free throws with 2:23 left to make the score 75-73, and set up a strange ending. Edgewood College failed to score, but drained all but seven seconds off the clock, by gathering four consecutive offensive rebounds and draining the shot clock each time. Eventually, Pope's miss was rebounded by Tajanae Key and Rockford called timeout with 3.9 seconds remaining. The Regents threw a pass into the frontcourt, but Pettit's buzzer beater attempt missed the mark.
Edgewood College hauled in a remarkable 61 rebounds on the game, including 29 on the offensive end. The 61 rebounds are the second most in Edgewood College history, still far short of the 78 rebounds collected against MSOE in 1994. Pope finished with 15 points and four assists to lead the Eagles. Little scored all 12 of her points in the first half and Zoey Dougherty went 8-for-10 at the free throw line to finish with 12 points as well. Five different Eagles all had at least eight rebounds, led by Spangler's 10 boards. Hannah Menzia and Gander each pulled down nine rebounds, while Hill and Jiran had eight rebounds apiece. Edgewood College went 19-for-23 (82.6 percent) at the free throw line.
After Clark's 28-point, 11-rebound game, Diamond Williams was next on the Regents' scoring list with 16 points and nine rebounds. Mallorie Getzelman added 13 points. Rockford forced 26 Eagles turnovers to aid their comeback.
The win pushes Edgewood College into a second place tie with Concordia University Chicago in the NACC standings with three games left to play. The Eagles next task will be NACC leader Wisconsin Lutheran College in home game at the Todd Wehr Edgedome next Wednesday. Tipoff is at 7:00 p.m.
