HOLLAND, Mich. – The Ohio Wesleyan University women's basketball team – ranked 17th in the WBCA preseason coaches poll and 24th in the D3hoops.com preseason poll – opened up the 2026-27 season Friday afternoon against Illinois Wesleyan in the first round of the Hope Michele Schoon Tournament. The Battling Bishops (0-1) put together an incredible comeback from 11 down in the fourth quarter to get within one, but a last-second attempt by
Macy Miller would fall offline, ending in a 50-49 loss to the Titans (1-0).
Miller scored Ohio Wesleyan's first basket of the year with a turnaround at the free throw line to give the Bishops an early 2-1 lead. Lana Srbinovsky followed with her first career bucket a minute later to make it 4-1.
The opening eight minutes saw just four made field goals between the two sides as OWU took a 7-5 lead. Illinois Wesleyan went on an 8-0 run in the final two minutes on a three-pointer and five free throws to take a 13-7 lead into the first break.
The Bishops improved their shooting slightly in the second quarter, making six shots including three triples, but were still outpaced 16-15 in the period.
Allie DeMassimo led the charge for the Red and Black with two threes for six points, followed by
Alexa Morris with five. The Titans took a 29-22 lead into halftime.
Points were once again at a premium at the start of the second half with Ohio Wesleyan making just three field goals in the third quarter and Illinois Wesleyan making only four. The Titans added two points to their lead, outscoring the Bishops 11-9 to make it a 40-31 game.
After falling behind by 12 with little over five minutes remaining, the Battling Bishops meticulously crawled back utilizing full court pressure to spur a 14-3 run and make it 50-49 with just over a minute left. Miller and Morris paced the steak with four points each.
Down one with 0:36 to go,
Maddie Ebbert blocked a Titan three-point attempt to get possession back for the Bishops. Ohio Wesleyan had two shots go offline before Illinois Wesleyan could come up with a rebound, however
Nora Johns came up with a tie-up and a steal to give OWU one last try.
Coming out of a timeout with just six seconds remaining, the inbound found its way to a smothered Miller for the go-ahead attempt. She made enough space to get the shot off, but it was slightly off the mark, leaving the final at 50-49 in favor of Illinois Wesleyan.
COACH HARTZLER'S COMMENTS
"Credit to Illinois Wesleyan. Coach Smith and her staff do a great job accumulating and developing talent and they played very hard. We are proud of our group's resilience. It would have been easy to pack it in and go our separate ways when shots we normally make were not falling early. That is just not in this program's DNA. We fought back and gave ourselves several shots to win at the end. We can build off that."
THE NUMBERS
Both sides struggled from the field, Ohio Wesleyan shooting 22.2% overall and 16.7% from deep while Illinois Wesleyan went 25.8% overall and 12.9% from three. The rebounding battle was tied 52-52.
Alexa Morris led the OWU offense in her collegiate debut, shooting 4-of-9 for 13 points and adding three rebounds and two steals.
Macy Miller recorded her first double-double of the season with 10 points and 13 rebounds alongside two assists and two steals.
Allie DeMassimo also got to double-digits in her collegiate debut, finishing with 10 points as well as four rebounds and four steals.
Lana Srbinovski scored five points and pulled down four boards in her collegiate debut.
Claire Wakim and
Maddie Ebbert each finished with six rebounds.
Aubrey Bashore made her first collegiate appearance.
UP NEXT
The Battling Bishops will match up with the winner of Hope and Wisconsin-Platteville tomorrow. Game time is to be determined based on that outcome.
