Wooster Tripped Up at Hiram 64-53

The College of Wooster women's basketball team outscored Hiram College by nine points in the second half, but it wasn't enough to overcome its slow start, as the Terriers used their first half cushion to drop the Fighting Scots 64-53 on Wednesday evening in a North Coast Athletic Conference match-up at Hiram, Ohio.

This game was a tale of two halves, as the Scots (6-8, 1-4 NCAC) made just three shots from the field in the first (3-for-21, .143), but hit 10 shots in the second, helping them draw within single digits on more than one occasion.

Trailing 38-18 to start the second half, the Scots opened with a 13-5 scoring run, including six points from Jessica Wingen and a Suvi Puripattarapan 3-pointer, which eventually made it a 12-point game at 43-31.

The Scots continued to carve away at their deficit, pulling within 10 (49-39) after a pair of free throws from Maura Hall, but the Terriers (6-9, 1-5 NCAC) pushed it back to 12 before Wingen sunk a free throw and Puripattarapan drained a jumper to make it a single-digit game (51-42) for the first time since early in the first half.

Hiram pushed its lead back up to 14 (58-44) with 2:46 remaining in the half, which triggered one last Wooster scoring spurt, as another Puripattarapan 3-ball, two makes from the charity stripe from Hall, and finally a shot in the paint from Lauren Hancher gave Wooster a fighting chance at 59-51 with 0:56 seconds to go in regulation.

That was as close as the Scots could get, though, as the Terriers did the rest of their damage via free throws to seal the victory.

Hall paced Wooster with a season-high 16 points, which was highlighted by a 12-for-12 performance from the free throw line. She also pulled down eight boards and came up with three steals in a strong overall effort.

Wingen also did the majority of her work at the charity stripe, where she went 9-for-14, en route to a 15-point, nine-rebound outing. Puripattarapan was solid off the bench, chipping in her second-highest point total of the year (8) and adding five rebounds in 22 minutes.

Hiram was led by Alexis Kemper's 17, which was keyed by a 4-for-4 mark from behind the arc.

The Scots and Terriers combined to make 44 free throws, with 23 and 21, respectively, which accounted for nearly 40 percent of the game's total points.

Wooster has a tough task ahead this weekend, as it looks to knock off undefeated and No. 1 ranked DePauw University (14-0, 5-0 NCAC) on Saturday at 1 p.m.