OWENSBORO, Ky. – The Kentucky Wesleyan women's basketball team (15-11, 11-9 G-MAC) pulled off a 78-75 overtime upset over in-state rival Thomas More Saturday afternoon inside Jones Gym.
Emma Bruwer totaled 33 points in the victory, the most by a Kentucky Wesleyan women's basketball player in at least the last 15 years.
Neither team led by more than four in a competitive first quarter. Both Myah Montgomery and Georgia Acompanado hit three-pointers in the opening 10 minutes.
Bruwer had the first six points for the Panthers in the second. Later, with Wesleyan down 26-20 and needing to land a punch, Acompanado and Montgomery hit back-to-back threes to tie the game at 26. Each team would score three more points in the frame and headed to the break still knotted up at 29.
Bruwer had seven of Wesleyan's first nine points in the second half as the Saints (22-6, 14-6 G-MAC) could not slow her down. About midway through the period, Ricky Kapteijn and Acompanado earned two free throws to help Wesleyan build their largest lead at 45-38, but Thomas More managed to cut their deficit to one at 47-46 by the end of the quarter.
The fourth continued to be a back-and-forth battle, resulting in a five-point Wesleyan advantage with two minutes remaining after a Bruwer jump. TMU scored the next six points on consecutive and-ones to take the lead at 66-65 with 54 seconds to play.
Wesleyan immediately responded as Bruwer drove in and recorded a floater to take the lead right back at 67-66. TMU then came right back down and scored again to go back on top at 68-67 headed into a timeout by head coach Nicole Nieman.
The after-timeout play was perfect, leading to a Bruwer floater with just three seconds remaining that gave the Panthers the advantage again at 69-68.
The Saints called their own timeout, and coming out, Thomas More's Izzy Rotert drove and got fouled with just a second to spare. Fortunately for KWC, she could only manage one of two free throws and the two teams headed to overtime.
The extra period was all Panthers. Iraxte Amorrortu Sainz nailed a jumper before Bruwer and Riley Neal connected on consecutive threes to put the Panthers up six at 77-71. Thomas More couldn't quite recover from that spurt and Wesleyan ultimately finalized their 78-75 victory in front of the Panther faithful.
On top of her 33 points, Bruwer shot an efficient 13-20 and added four rebounds, two steals, and one blocked shot.
Montgomery and Acompanado each joined her in double digits. The former had 14 points, three rebounds, three assists, and three steals, and the latter logged 12 points, four rebounds, four assists, and three steals.
Shortly after the conclusion of the game, it was announced by the league office that the Panthers will be the #7 seed in the Great Midwest Championship Tournament. For their quarterfinal matchup, Wesleyan will travel to Canton, Ohio, for a battle versus the #2-seeded Pioneers on Tuesday, March 3rd. Tipoff is set for 4:30 PM and fans can watch live on FloCollege.
Visit kwcpanthers.com/give today to make a gift to Kentucky Wesleyan Athletics! Gifts can be directed to general athletics, our athletic endowment, or any of our 14 NCAA Division II programs.
Stay up to date on all your Panther news by following @KWCPanthers on X and Instagram and by liking the "Kentucky Wesleyan College Athletics" Facebook page. Also, the Panthers Mobile App is available on iTunes and Android featuring real-time news alerts, schedules, exclusive multimedia content, gameday details and more.
