The Culver-Stockton College women's basketball team suffered a fatal blow to its postseason chances with a 66-65 loss to Graceland University Wednesday night at the Morden Center in Lamoni, Iowa.

The loss, coupled with Peru State's victory at Baker University, all but ends the Wildcats' hope for a berth in the Heart of America Athletic Conference Postseason Tournament. 

The Wildcats trailed 66-65 after C-SC's Nevaiah Bell-Tenner split a pair of free throws with 36 seconds remaining in regulation.

With a six second difference between the shot clock and the game clock, C-SC chose to play defense and the strategy worked as the Wildcats forced a turnover with Delaney Straus coming up with a steal with nine seconds left.

The Wildcats called timeout to advance the ball to the front court to set up a potential game-winning shot. 

C-SC got the ball to Ortiz who drove the lane but her first shot rolled off the rim. Ortiz came out of the scrum for the rebound and was able to get a second shot off with two seconds left but it fell off and went out of bounds off a Wildcat player with three-tenths of a second remaining, essentially ending the game.

The Wildcats trailed 20-10 after the first quarter but blistered the nets at a 69 percent (9-13) clip in the second quarter to take a 34-32 lead to halftime.

C-SC still led 51-50 after three quarters and scored 10 of the first 14 points of the fourth quarter to take a 61-54 lead with seven minutes left in the game.

At that point, the Wildcats went nearly five minutes without scoring as the Yellowjackets netted 12 straight points to go up 66-61 with 2:26 to play. 

A Katie Webb broke the string with 2:21 left and the Wildcats held Graceland scoreless for the remainder of the game. However, C-SC could only manage a free throw by Ortiz with 1:42 remaining, and Bell-Tenner's foul shot with 36 seconds left in the final two minutes.

The Wildcats outscored the Yellowjackets 20-5 from the free throw line, but Graceland made up for that deficit by outscoring the Wildcats 21-3 from the 3-point arc. 

Ortiz led the Wildcat offensive attack with 20 points and four assists. Bell-Tenner and Avery Oetting chipped in with 11 markers each. Webb and Oetting led the Wildcats with seven rebounds.

C-SC, now 10-17 overall and 9-14 in the Heart, will play its season finale this Saturday, Feb. 24, at Park University in Parkville, Mo. Game time is set for 3 p.m.

GAME NOTES:

• Ortiz's 20 matches her season-high, the third time this season she has scored 20 points in a game, and the fourth time in. her career she has netted 20 or more points in a game.
• It was the fifth time Ortiz has led the Wildcats in scoring this season.
• The Wildcats were out-rebounded 41-37 in the game. C-SC is 1-12 this season when opponents lead in rebounding.
• C-SC recorded nine assists in the game, just the fourth time this season they have registered fewer than 10 assists in a game.