BEREA, Ohio – Baldwin Wallace was on a 25-game win streak and led for nearly three-fourths of Saturday’s women’s basketball OAC Tournament championship, but the Yellow Jackets found themselves in a battle with Ohio Northern in the biggest game of their season. The previous few minutes had been physical and back-and-forth, neither team able to pull away in clutch time. Then, sophomore Laura McCoy caught a pass from senior guard Caely Ressler and knocked down the second-biggest 3-pointer of her season to put the Jackets up four with 2:04 left in the fourth quarter. Her biggest 3 came immediately after. The Polar Bears scored to cut the lead in half, but McCoy, with ice in her veins, took a pull-up 3 right in her defender’s eyes … and nailed it. It gave her 11 points for the game, putting the Jackets up five with 1:10 to play, and the Ursprung Gymnasium went into a frenzy. “My coach put me in the game, told us we were going to hit a big shot … It’s probably top 10 experiences any athlete wants to have,” McCoy said. “I had the confidence to shoot, my teammates had the confidence in me to shoot, that’s what led me to shoot.” The No. 1-seed Jackets never trailed again and defeated No. 2 Ohio Northern 64-60 in the tournament championship to send them dancing with an automatic bid in the Division III NCAA Tournament. BW (26-1) will play on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The opponent will be announced Monday at 2:30 p.m., along with a potential tournament berth for Ohio Northern (19-8). For the Jackets, this victory was not just any championship victory, this one was for revenge. Last season, it was the Polar Bears who knocked the Jackets out of the OAC tournament with a 57-43 semifinals blowout. This game was a big one, especially for seniors Emily Irwin (second-team All-OAC) and OAC Tournament MVP Caely Ressler (first-team All-OAC). “Our assistant coach reminded us of that a lot yesterday,” Ressler said. “Every season’s a new season, it felt really good to get some revenge on our home court.” The Jackets came into this game ranked third in the nation according to the NCAA Power Index (NPI), and they showed in the championship that they can win close games on a big stage. A crucial component to the victory was their proficient perimeter play, both on offense and defense. The Jackets went 10 of 19 (52.6%) from deep, while holding the Polar Bears to 2 of 14 (14.3%). This has been a strength for the Jackets all season long, as they rank eighth in the nation in 3-point percentage allowed at 22.8%. “They put the time in,” BW head coach Cheri Harrer said. “They put the time in to get extra shots up … our kids were able to take advantage of their preparation today.” The top 3-point shooter on the team in this game was junior Kaycie Badylak, who went 4 of 5 (80%), while notching a season-high 16 points. “Nobody spends more time in the gym than Kaycie,” Harrer said. “Kaycie is in here every single day, getting extra shots up … we finally saw all that hard work pay off.” The first quarter was as evenly matched as one would expect from the top two teams in the OAC. The Yellow Jackets and the Polar Bears went toe-to-toe, as 3s by Badylak and McCoy were matched by hard-nosed, physical buckets in the paint by ONU sophomore forward Chloee Glenn. The first quarter ended with both teams deadlocked at 12. As the game neared halftime, the game got increasingly physical, with multiple fouls and jump-balls being called in the final minute. While the players on the court kept their cool, tempers flared in the stands. One play in particular, a jump-ball with less than 10 seconds remaining, resulted in boos and angry shouts from some audience members. However, seconds later the dissent was starkly contrasted with cheering, the gym erupting as Irwin drained a buzzer-beater 3 to put BW up by four heading into the half. It was Irwin’s 1,000th career point, and she said that reaching this milestone is “a testament to my teammates.” The third quarter continued to be tight, but the Jackets were able to pull away slightly, heading into the fourth up 49-42. At the beginning of the final quarter, however, ONU opened with an 8-0 run to take the lead. Ressler, knowing her team needed a bucket to prevent a collapse, drained a clutch jumper from the elbow as the shot clock expired midway through the fourth, setting up what would be a thrilling endgame. “We prepare for this. This is what you come to BW to play in … for championships,” Ressler said. “You just want to knock down shots for your teammates, because cutting down the nets and seeing them so happy … there’s no better feeling.”