College Women’s Basketball Final – Guilford 62, Eastern Mennonite 59 (OT)

SALEM, Va. – Gabby Oglesby (Winston-Salem, N.C./Mt. Tabor) and Jazlyn Gibbs (Greensboro, N.C./Southeast Guilford USC-Aiken)) both scored 16 points in Guilford College’s 62-59 win over Eastern Mennonite University in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Tournament semifinals Saturday.

The third-seeded Quakers’ sixth win in seven games sends them to Sunday’s ODAC final against top-seeded Virginia Wesleyan College, a 60-58 winner over Washington and Lee University. Guilford (21-6) is making its third ODAC Tournament final appearance, its first since 2002.

Guilford outscored the Royals, 6-3, in a low-scoring overtime. The Quakers held Eastern Mennonite (22-4) to one-of-eight field-goal shooting and led throughout after Oglesby scored the period’s first points with 3:27 left. Teammate Morgan King’s layup with 42 seconds left opened a 62-59 lead. The Royals had four offensive rebounds in the final 31 seconds, but missed two shots from the floor and three free throws in that time.

The Quakers used a late 11-3 run to overcome a 51-45 deficit with 5:44 left in regulation. Gibbs started the rally with a three-pointer at the 5:31 mark and her basket with 1:09 left gave Guilford a 56-53 edge. The Quakers’ missed two front ends of one-and-one free throw opportunities after that, which left the door open for the Royals. Eastern Mennonite’s Stephanie Rheinheimer made a steal and three-pointer with one second left to force the game’s fifth and final tie.

Oglesby, who was scoreless in the first half, added 10 rebounds for her team-leading sixth double-double of the season. The 2012 ODAC Player of the Year also blocked three shots and broke her own school record for rejections in a season (62). Gibbs also scored 14 second-half points and added five boards in 42 minutes. Jaclyn Nucci had 13 rebounds and six assists, both game and career highs.

Eastern Mennonite’s Bianca Ygarza scored a game-best 18 points and had eight boards off the bench. Rheinheimer finished with 15 points and made three of the Royals’ five three-pointers. Eastern Mennonite shot 31.4% for the game, five-of-20 from beyond the arc.

Guilford and top-seeded Virginia Wesleyan split the two regular-season meetings with the home team winning both games. Tip-off is 1:00 p.m. at the Salem Civic Center.