BLUFFTON, Ohio (December 29, 2022) – In the first game of the McDonald's of Bluffton Holiday Tournament, the Denison University women's basketball team played a great second half against the No. 25 nationally-ranked team in NCAA Division III before ultimately falling by a final score of 60-50 against Ohio Northern University on Thursday evening.

It was a rough start to the game for Denison, which started 0-for-4 from the field with three turnovers in the first three minutes, leading to an 8-0 start on the scoreboard for ONU before Maddie Goodman converted on the first points for the Big Red.

Then after Goodman hit a 3-pointer to make it 10-5 just over four minutes into the game, Denison went scoreless over the final 5:51 of the first quarter and finished the period with eight total turnovers, resulting in a 14-5 lead for the Polar Bears.

Francesca Sileo then opened the second quarter with a bucket, but the Big Red proceeded to miss their next nine shots while the Polar Bears connected on four of their first six attempts in the period and ultimately expanded their lead to 24-8 with four minutes remaining in the first half.

After a pair of free throws by Mikaila Carpenter cut Denison's deficit in half (26-13) with under two minutes left before the break, ONU answered with a 3-pointer to start a 7-0 run to end the period and put the Polar Bears up by 20 (33-13) at the intermission.

Denison had only two made field goals in each of the first two quarters (4-for-25; 16 percent) with 12 turnovers while ONU shot 16-for-31 (51.6 percent) and did a great job of establishing position in the paint, leading to a 30-4 advantage on points in the paint after the first 20 minutes of action.

In the second half, however, Denison began to turn things around and made it interesting at the end.

Aided by seven points from Carpenter, Denison outscored ONU 17-16 in the third quarter, and then in the fourth quarter, the Big Red made a late push with a 9-0 run get to within single digits in the final three minutes.

The run started with jumper by Gabby Elliott to make it 56-40 with five and a half minutes left, and then a layup by Carpenter made it 56-42 with four minutes to go.

That was followed by Sydney Wood's first point of the season on a free throw and then her first basket of the year on a long two-point jumper to make it 56-45 with under three minutes remaining before Elliott scored again to get the Big Red to within nine (56-47) with under two and a half minutes left to play.

In the end, Denison outscored ONU 20-11 in the fourth quarter and 37-27 in the second half while shooting 7-for-15 (46.67 percent) from the field in both the third and fourth quarters. The Polar Bears, meanwhile, made only one of their 13 field goals attempts (7.69 percent) over the final 10 minutes.

Carpenter led the Big Red with 15 points and 10 rebounds for her third double-double of the season, and was a perfect 5-for-5 from the charity stripe. Elliott and Goodman both chipped in with eight points while Goodman also added five assists.

With its fourth loss in a row, Denison falls to 4-6 on the season while ONU, which was ranked in the latest D3hoops.com Top 25 Poll for the first time since 2018, won its sixth game in a row to improve to 9-1.

Denison will be back in action tomorrow on Friday, December 30, against the host of the tournament, Bluffton University, at 2 p.m.