NORTH MANCHESTER, Indiana – Earlham College women's basketball survived a fourth quarter rally and an overtime session against Manchester University on its way to an 82-75 win over the Spartans, in a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference clash on Saturday afternoon at Stauffer-Wolfe Arena.

With the victory over Manchester, Earlham clinched the no. 6 seed for this week's 2020 HCAC Women's Basketball Tournament. The Quakers will travel to no. 3 seed Franklin College for an opening round game on Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 7:30 p.m.

The HCAC Tournament berth marks Earlham's second post-season appearance in three seasons under Head Coach Shauna Watson, who also guided the Quakers into the HCAC tourney in 2018.

THE BASICS

Final Score: Earlham 82, Manchester 75
Location: North Manchester, Indiana – Stauffer-Wolfe Arena
Records: Earlham 8-17, 7-11 HCAC / Manchester 8-17, 5-13 HCAC

HOW IT HAPPENED

Earlham had to earn the win in overtime on back-to-back buckets from senior Amy Weisner and first-year Trinity McClendon, breaking a 70-70 deadlock.

First-year Neely Trenshaw made the first of two foul shots to extend the Earlham lead to 75-70 with 1:45 left in the extra period, and a Weisner 3-pointer 29 seconds later put the Quakers in front, 78-70, effectively sealing the win. A layup by Manchester's Bridget Nash dented the Earlham lead by two points, but the Quakers went 4-for-6 at the stripe over the final minute to preserve the victory.

The Quakers led by 16 points, 59-43, coming out of the third quarter, by the Spartans knotted things up by outscoring Earlham 23-7 in the final quarter.

Manchester connected on eight of its 17 shots in the fourth quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers, while holding Earlham to 3-of-9 shooting from the floor. Macy Miller's trey with nine seconds remaining in regulation tied the game at 66-66, forcing the game into the extra session.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

Trinity McClendon came off the bench to score 32 points on 13-of-27 shooting from the field.

Senior Zoe Curtis paced the starters with 14 points to go with a team-high eight rebounds.

Seniors Amy Weisner and Camryn White each finished with 10 points to round out the double-digit scorers for the Quakers.

Earlham shot 47.0 percent (31-of-66) from the field, and was the Quakers' third-best shooting performance this season, trailing only a 47.6 percent performance in this season's previous meeting with Manchester and a 47.3 percent effort versus Bob Jones University.

The Quakers had a 38-35 advantage on the boards, including 14 offensive boards that yielded 17 second-chance points for the Maroon and White.

Macy Miller led Manchester with 21 points, while Haley Farris tallied 13 points. Hannah Lindsey and Nicole Weaver finished with 12 and 11 points respectively.

WHAT'S NEXT

Earlham women's basketball travels to Franklin, Indiana, on Tuesday, Feb. 25, to face Franklin College. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m.