HAMMOND, Ind. – After trailing by double-digits in the first quarter, the No. 15 Purdue University Northwest women's basketball team fought back and earned a 131-126 overtime victory over (RV) Olivet Nazarene in the opening round of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference postseason tournament.

PNW advances to the CCAC semifinal set for Saturday in Chicago, when the Pride travel to No. 2-seed and #3 ranked Saint Xavier, who defeated 7-seed Trinity Christian Trolls in the opening round, 100-52. Game time is to be determined.

The Black and Gold defeated the Tigers in all three appearances this season, with tonight's point total being the most points scored in program history, since the 2014-15 season when PNW scored 122 points in a victory over ONU.

After missing two games due to injury, freshman Shae Rhonehouse (Fremont, Ind./Fremont) (Fremont, Ind./Fremont) led the Pride's offense with a career-high 36 points in her first start back, including a career-best three trifectas while sophomore Michaela Kikendall (Morristown, Ind./Morristown) (Morristown, Ind./Morristown) came up with a huge performance off the bench, scoring a career-best 29 points on 12-of-15 shooting.

Senior guard Darien Thompson (Anderson, Ind./Anderson) (Anderson, Ind./Anderson) used her speed to blow by the Tiger's press and score 28 points while classmate Cassidy Deno (Otterbein, Ind./Benton Central) (Otterbein, Ind./Benton Central) had a big second half, finishing with 18 points and 12 rebounds.

Katie Wampler (Scottsburg, Ind./Scottsburg) (Scottsburg, Ind./Scottsburg) and Jessica Kiser (Noblesville, Ind./Noblesville) (Noblesville, Ind./Noblesville) both scored eight points, with Wampler bringing down 12 rebounds and Kiser grabbing six rebounds and dishing out five assists.

ONU would take a 17-0 lead to begin the contest, and followed up with taking their biggest lead of the game, 35-12 with 2:25 left in the opening period.

The Pride would refuse to give up, gaining momentum at the end of the second period to cut their deficit to six, 53-47, before trailing 55-47 heading in to the break.

With the Tigers leading for the majority of the third quarter, the Black and Gold struck fire in the final two minutes, going on a 13-0 run to push the Pride ahead of ONU, 86-80.

A pair of free throws from Kikendall jumped the Pride ahead seven points, 99-92, with 6:00 minutes left in the fourth, but the Tigers jumped back to get within four, 112-108 with 2:03 left.

PNW led by three points with 12 seconds remaining, but ONU's Trinity Davis hit a clutch three-pointer with five seconds left and sent the game to overtime.

Both teams answered each other in the overtime period, but some clutch free throw shooting from Rhonehouse and Kikendall helped propel the Pride past the Tigers for the 131-126 comeback victory.

PNW outrebounded the Tigers, 54-52, and shot 46.7 percent from beyond the arc, compared to just 25 percent from ONU.

The Black and Gold used a large amount of fast break layups to give them 84 points in the paint, compared to 66 from the Tigers.