A poor first quarter stretch was enough to hinder The College of Wooster women's basketball team on Wednesday in an 87-78 North Coast Athletic Conference loss to Hiram College.

Senior Alyssa Chritz finished one shy of her career-high, scoring 26 points, to lead the Scots. Chritz added five assists, four rebounds and tied for a game-high four steals 

Sophomore Ella Biondi recorded her first double-double since Dec. 16, finishing with 18 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. First-year Ace Sturdivant also recorded 18 points and recorded a game-high eight assists.

First-year Alexis Lovejoy reached double figures for the first time, scoring a career-best 12 points on 4 of 6 shooting from beyond the arc. Sophomore Erica Beaty rounded out the scoring with four points.

Hiram was led by the 3-point threat in Anastasia Lawler who scored 22 points on a 6 of 14 shooting mark from beyond the arc. She also recorded five rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Brooke Hickman recorded the other double-double of the game, finishing with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Wooster opened with a 5-0 lead, but Hiram put the Scots into a hole with a 15-0 run until Sturdivant sank a 3-pointer to stop the run.

Hiram got its lead to 22-8 before Wooster started to get some offense going. Wooster cut the lead to five with just under five minutes remaining in the first half. Yet, Hiram used a strong run late to lead 38-27 at halftime.

The Scots came out of the half strong, scoring the first seven points to trail by just four.  Later, a Beaty two-pointer made it 40-38 to force a Hiram timeout.

Unfortunately, that was as close as Wooster would get. Hiram upped its lead to 10 by the end of the quarter, 61-51.

Wooster trailed in the fourth 63-57 but Hiram would later go on a run to give them their largest lead of the game at 17.

Hiram hurt Wooster on the boards, outrebounding them 49-33 and scoring 24 second chance points. They outscored Wooster in the paint 40-28 and outscored its bench 29-12.

Wooster (4-9, 0-3 NCAC) shot 43 percent (28 of 65) from the floor and 44 percent (10 of 23) from deep. Hiram (6-8, 1-2 NCAC) shot 44 percent (34 of 77) for the game and 31 percent (8 of 26) from range.

Wooster returns home Saturday to host Wittenberg University in another NCAC clash.