Women win 64-61, men survive 64-60 in OT
The 14th ranked Tabor women withstood a spirited effort by the Ottawa Braves Thursday night in Ottawa, winning 64-61.
The Bluejays struggled through 13 first half turnovers to take a 27-25 lead at halftime.
Tabor stretched its lead to nine points, 34-25, early in the second stanza before Ottawa used a 21-7 run to grab a 46-41 lead with just over 10 minutes to play.
Ottawa extended its lead to seven points at 58-51 at the 4:07 mark before pressure defense allowed Tabor to knot the score at 58 with 3:00 to play.
Leading 62-61 with 33 seconds to play, Kelly Pavlik stepped to the line and sank a pressure filled one-and-one to secure the 64-61 victory.
Erica Dechant led a balanced scoring attack for Tabor with 13 points, followed by Stacie Herman with 12, Jill Hein 11 and both Erica Hemmert and Donya Anderson added nine.
With the win, Tabor maintains a share of first place in the KCAC with an 8-1 conference record while moving to 15-4 overall.
The Tabor men seemed to have things under control in their game with Ottawa, leading 35-19 with 18:41 to play in the game, but a 21-6 spurt by the Braves pulled them within a single point of Tabor at 41-40 with 8:18 remaining.
From there, Ottawa went on to take as much as a five point lead, 52-47, with just 3:26 to play.
But Brad Gattis connected on four of four free throws down the stretch to send the game into overtime tied at 53.
Once into overtime, Gattis connected on a 3-point basket as Tabor built a five point lead before settling for the 64-60 overtime victory.
Gattis was the hero for Tabor offensively, pouring in a season high 25 points while hauling in 11 rebounds.
Martin de Boer added 10 points for the Bluejays.
With the win, Tabor improves to 5-4 in conference play while pushing its overall record to 11-8.
