The Lady Cardinals extended their NCAA Tournament hopes with a 71-64 win over the Wilmington Quakers last night in the OAC quarterfinals at the Rike Center.

“It’s good to get a tournament win; we haven’t had a tournament win in a long time and I’m glad we got one today,” assistant coach Jeff Blunt said.

A Wilmington 3-ball opened up the scoring and helped propel the Quakers to an early 8-2 lead, but after a foul lead to a Hannah Day 3-point play, the Cardinals gained the lead with 14:59 to go in the first half and never looked back.

A couple of Wilmington turnovers and pair of field goals made by senior Shea McCoy extended the Otterbein lead to four points.

Another Quaker turnover with 7:18 on the clock led to a quick dish from McCoy to Day from behind the arch for three, putting the Cardinals up by 10.

McCoy led the team with 19 points on 8-12, shooting with two assists and three rebounds.

The fifth team foul for the visitors was followed quickly by Otterbein’s fifth and sixth team fouls that lead to a pair of successful Quaker free throws, dropping the lead to six points with 4:35 left.

Day, who led the team off the bench with 11 points and three boards, connected on another three, and senior Kristi Kotterman added four more at the end of the first half to put the Cards up 33-21.

At the break, the Cardinals shot 14-32 from the floor as well as being 2-7 from behind the 3-point line. Otterbein also edged out Wilmington in rebounds (21) and committed fewer turnovers (7).

Otterbein didn’t trail once after falling behind early in the first; inside play by junior Chelsea Cannon and solid defense by Kotterman in the second half boosted the ladies past the Quakers.

The second half started much like the first; a Wilmington 3-pointer was answered quickly by McCoy with a layup.

With 13:44 remaining in the game, Otterbein lead 43-32, but after Wilmington split a pair of free throws and Otterbein made two of its own, the lead increased to 12.

Wilmington’s 3-point play after a foul with 6:42 remaining was responded to a minute later via a 3-point shot by Allie Leopard from the corner.

LeAnn Topp cut Otterbein’s lead to six after hitting her third 3-pointer of the game with just over two minutes left.

Freshman Tabatha Piper’s one-and-one counted for her eighth and ninth points of the night, but these were followed closely by two free throws made by Wilmington.

A late rally by Wilmington decreased its deficit to eight with 0:33 left, but ultimately it wasn’t enough to get past Otterbein’s defense, which held the Quakers to 29 percent (20-68) from the floor and 37 percent (7-19) from behind the arch.

“I think we played really well. I think we could have upped our defense a little more, but when we needed a stop, we got a stop, and when we needed a score, we got a score,” senior Julie Macioce said.

Otterbein travels to Ohio Northern University for the OAC semifinal matchup on Thursday.

“(Ohio Northern) is a big team. They go inside; a lot of high-low type game. We’re going to have to do a good job defending their bigs for sure,” Blunt said.

For Macioce, the game plan is simple: Play to win. “If we play to our potential, we can beat anybody,” she said.

Tipoff is this Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Ada, Ohio.