Ferris State Holds On Down The Stretch To Win Second-Straight Heading Into Holiday Break

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Big Rapids, Mich. - The Ferris State University women's basketball team headed into the holiday break on a winning note as FSU held on for a 78-74 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) home win over Ohio Dominican on Sunday (Dec. 14) afternoon inside Jim Wink Arena.

The Bulldogs posted their second-straight win and won for the third time in four league contests while beating the Panthers in their final outing until the New Year.

FSU led by two points, 33-31, at halftime and jumped the lead to as many as 16 points in the second half with 5:41 to play before a valiant Ohio Dominican comeback came up short. 

Ohio Dominican trimmed Ferris State's lead down to two points with 1:15 to go. Following a FSU free throw, the Panthers had the ball for a potential game-tying three with 10 seconds to play, but Ferris State blocked the ball away and proceeded to hit one more free throw to account for the final margin.

FSU moved to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in the GLIAC with back-to-back wins to wrap up the first semester portion of the schedule while ODU fell to 3-5 overall and 1-2 in conference action.

Sophomore guard Ally Christman continued her solid play by scoring a team-high 21 points, which included a six-of-12 (50%) showing from behind the three-point arc. She also hit three-of-four free throws in the win.

Along with Christman, FSU received 17 points, six steals, five rebounds and three assists from junior center Christina Branch. Junior guard Dena Droste added 13 points and produced five assists for FSU in the win.

The Bulldogs finished shooting 48.3% overall for the game and hit nine-of-26 (34.6%) three's along with 13-of-19 (68.4%) at the free throw stripe.

Meanwhile, Ohio Dominican connected on 42% of its field goal tries and was nine-of-22 (40.9%) from downtown along with seven-of-eight (87.3%) at the line.

The Panthers received a game-high 24 points from Kacee Hockenberry in addition to 14 points from Melissa Scherpenberg and 12 points off the bench from Tori Beth Leader. Lauren Bates chipped in 11 points.

ODU outrebounded the Bulldogs 39-36 for the day and tallied 16 offensive boards to 12 for the Bulldogs although FSU owned a slim 15-14 edge in second chance production.

The turnovers were nearly even as FSU totaled 21 to 20 for Ohio Dominican, but the Bulldogs outscored ODU 28-21 in points off miscues and came up with 12 steals to only nine for the visitors. Ferris State also had six blocked shots, including three from senior center Hannah Hoffman, to two for Ohio Dominican.

On the strength of Droste's team-high five assists, FSU finished with 29 helpers. Junior Destiney Robinson added four assists and Branch had three to aid the Bulldog cause. ODU netted 19 assists overall with both Hockeyberry and Bates contributing five apiece.

Ferris State will return from the holiday break on Friday, Jan. 2, as FSU visits Findlay to begin a two-game weekend road trip at Croy Gymnasium in Findlay, Ohio. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. (ET).