In a double overtime thriller, the Baker University women’s basketball team came out on top 82-79 over No. 22 Central Methodist University Saturday.

After coming up short 61-59 against Benedictine College Thursday, the Wildcats defeated CMU to improve their record to 12-8 on the season and 5-3 in the Heart of America Athletic Conference.

Head coach Ben Lister is proud of the resilience the team displayed bouncing back from the loss against Benedictine to defeat a ranked team, and believes the win to be a great accomplishment for the program.

“I’m sure most people don’t realize that Central Methodist actually went on the road and beat Chicago State, an NCAA DI team,” Lister said. “They’ve got a lot of good athletes and a lot of different weapons that we did a good job of eliminating.”

Free-throws were a key factor to the victory for Baker, as the Wildcats went 23 for 26 from the charity stripe. Lister said it was “by far our best night from the free-throw line.”

In both games, senior Alisha Fanshier led the team by scoring 19 points against Benedictine and 18 points against Central Methodist.

Four other Wildcats scored in the double digits on Saturday including senior Rece Huddlin with 15, junior BriAnna Garza with 13 and sophomores Kyrstie Ehm and Rashida Simpson with 12 apiece.

With 15 boards, Simpson led the way in rebounding Saturday. The team as a whole outrebounded CMU 38-32.

“Rashida plays with so much want and desire to win,” Lister said. “She has the motor to go get every rebound, and so does Rece. It’s very beneficial for us to have two kids like that, good athletes who are relentless in chasing the ball down.”

The Wildcats are now in fourth place in the HAAC as CMU fell to 6-3 in conference play.

Baker will be back on its home court Thursday to take on Avlia University at 5:30 p.m. in Collins Center.