The No. 22 Benedictine Women’s Basketball team used six first-half 3-pointers and converted on 91.7 percent from the charity stripe in the first half on Wednesday night to advance to the Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament Semifinals.

Benedictine (23-8) jumped out to a 13-0 lead on Peru State College (11-20) and never looked back as they picked up the 66-55 win over the Bobcats.

The win on Wednesday gave the Ravens three wins this season over Peru State College and sets up a rubber match with Baker University back inside the Ralph Nolan Gymnasium on Friday night.

Chayla Rutledge, Jackie Ziesel and Kristen Murphy combined to score the first 13 points of the night for the Ravens with the second of back-to-back 3-pointers knocked in by Rutledge and Ziesel pushing Ziesel into the 1,000 point scoring club.

The Ravens led by as much as 16 points before the Bobcats closed within seven points with just over five minutes left in the half. Benedictine outscored Peru State 12-7 over the remainder of the first half to take a 12 point lead into halftime.

Peru State opened the second half with five straight points only to have Benedictine answer with 9-0 run that pushed their lead back to 16 with 16 minutes left in the game.

The Ravens committed 11 turnovers in the second half, which aided the Bobcats offense and allowed Peru State to pull within six points with seven minutes left in the game.

Benedictine outscored Peru State 13-4 over the next two minutes to push their lead back to 15 before the Bobcats scored the games final four points to give Benedictine the 11-point win.

Rutledge led the Ravens with a game-high 15 points while Ziesel was close behind with 14. Murphy narrowly missed out on a double-double as she led the Ravens with 11 rebounds while finishing with nine points.

The second-seeded Ravens host third-seeded Baker, who beat Graceland 82-65 on Wednesday, at 7 p.m. Friday night in the Nolan Gymnasium. The two schools split the regular-season series, winning on the opponents home floor. Benedictine earned a 77-73 win in Baldwin City on Jan. 8 while Baker earned a 63-57 win in Atchison on Feb. 12.

— BC Sports Information —