SALEM, Va. --- Guilford College's Anais Weatherly claimed the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Tournament's Most Outstanding Player honor as the Quakers earned the school's fifth ODAC Tournament title with a Sunday afternoon victory over top-seeded Lynchburg College, 59-53.

The win clinches the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Division III playoffs. The field will be announced Monday (2/27) at 2:30 p.m. (EDT) on www.ncaa.com. The tournament begins Friday (3/3) on campus locations.

The score remained even, 4-4, through the first four minutes as both sides featured physical defensive and rebounding play. The Hornets (22-6) used a 6-0 run after the 3:38 mark to take a four-point lead. An Essence Abraham field goal stopped the run with 41 seconds left in the period, but an Olivia DeFrancesco lay-up off an offensive rebound at the buzzer gave the Hornets a 12-8 lead after one period.

Lynchburg opened a five-point lead 3:30 minutes into the second quarter as part of a 14-2 run. The Hornets held the Quakers (24-3) without a field goal for the final 6:57 of the quarter. and 18.8 percent field-goal shooting, while the Hornets shot 38.5 percent on just five field goals.

The Quakers closed the gap on the Hornets in the third quarter, scoring seven straight points over a 1:48 span to cut the Hornets' lead to four. A Jordyn Richardson put-back with 3:18 remaining in the period extended the run to 11-2 and cut the deficit to two points. After Amy Steller was fouled on a three-point attempt with 1:31 left, she made two-of-three free throws to erase the Lynchburg advantage and give Guilford a one-point lead. DeFrancesco's three free throws inside the final minute helped Lynchburg regain the lead with 41 seconds left in the period. An Abraham jumper at the buzzer cut Lynchburg's five-point lead down to three entering the final quarter.

Abraham's bucket sparked a 14-2 Guilford run and gave the Quakers a seven-point advantage. The Hornets cut the lead down to four with 4:16 remaining, but the Quakers increased their lead back to eight with 2:20 left. Lynchburg cut the lead down to three on a DeFrancesco lay-up with 1:39 to play. Weatherly got to the line twice in the final minute as Guilford's defense held to clinch Guilford's fifth league title.

Weatherly finished with 13 points on five-of-11 shooting and added four steals. Steller led the Quakers in scoring with 15 points on four-of-nine shooting with two steals. Lauren Ramsey was the remaining Quakers player in double-figure scoring with 11 points on four-of-eight shooting while pulling down four rebounds and dishing three assists. Ramsey and Steller joined Weatherly on the all-tournament team.

Charmaine Hairston led all scorers with 20 points for Lynchburg while DeFrancesco tallied 12 points and eight rebounds while dishing seven assists. Hairston and Caroline Naumann (9 points, 7 rebounds) represented the Hornets on the all-tourney squad.

The Quakers shot 38.6 percent from the field after shooing above 50 percent in each of the final two quarters, including a 58.3 percent shooting effort in the fourth quarter. Lynchburg shot 36.4 percent from the field, tallying just nine second-half field goals.

The Quakers claimed a 30-14 edge in the paint and made a late charge to grab the second-chance points edge, 16-12. The Quakers finished with a 40-29 rebounding advantage thanks to 14 offensive rebounds.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Lauren Ramsey, GC
Amy Steller, GC
Anais Weatherly, GC (MOP)
Charmaine Hairston, LC
Caroline Naumann, LC

--- This release is courtesy of the Guilford College sports information department. ---
www.guilfordquakers.com