Dragons Take Oilers Down to the Wire

Dragons Take Oilers Down to the Wire

FINDLAY, Ohio – Tiffin women's basketball hung tough with the University of Findlay on Saturday afternoon, but the Oilers pulled away late to defeat the Dragons 75-66.

Knotted at 63 apiece with three and a half minutes to play, the Oilers finished the game on a 12-3 run to improve to 11-4 in the G-MAC, while Tiffin falls to 4-11.

Sarah Cummings led TU with a career-high-tying 17 points, while Annie Santucci and Allie Miller tallied 16 apiece. As has become customary for the Dragons in recent games, Tiffin forced more opponent turnovers (23) than they gave up (17). TU also recorded 14 assists to just seven for Findlay, and outscored the Oilers 25-7 off the bench.

The Dragons got on the board first on a Sarah Cummings jumper and then led 4-2 after an Aarion Nichols layup, but the Oilers quickly took the lead and held it for the rest of the opening quarter. An Annie Santucci three in transition with just over a minute left in the period cut the Findlay lead to three, but the Oilers took a 20-15 lead at the end of one.

Tiffin kept battling throughout the second quarter, pulling with one early in the period on another Santucci three. The Oilers were able to build their lead up once again, but the Dragons responded with a triple from Miller in the final seconds of the half to go into the break down by just one, 37-36.

Findlay was able to hold their lead for most of the third quarter, but Tiffin would not be denied as four-straight points from Cummings gave the Dragons a 54-52 lead with 2:31 remaining in the period.

The Oilers answered with four-straight counters of their own, but TU came right back with three in a row to end the quarter and take a 57-56 lead heading into the final ten minutes.

Nichols extended the lead to 59-56 moments into the fourth, but Findlay quickly tied it up with a three ball at the 6:54 mark.

Still tied at 63 with 3:39 to go, the Oilers began to pull away and finished the game on a 12-3 run to hold off the Dragon upset bid.

Tiffin will now regroup and reload to take a southern road trip down to Trevecca Nazarene and Kentucky Wesleyan next week.