Sydney Grier

WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster played well down the stretch, as it put together a late 21-5 scoring run, but Kenyon College was able to use the cushion it established earlier to take down the Fighting Scots by a 69-45 margin Saturday afternoon in both teams' regular-season finale at Timken Gymnasium.

The Scots (7-17, 2-14 NCAC) sewed up the eighth-seed in the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament and will travel to No. 1 ranked DePauw University (24-1, 15-1 NCAC) next Tuesday in quarterfinal action.

Today's game was gridlocked early on, as neither team reached double-digits on the scoreboard until nearly 10 minutes into the first half. Once the Ladies hit a 3-pointer to make it 12-6, they went on to score 14 unanswered points to take a 23-6 lead. That run proved to be enough to keep the Scots at bay the rest of the contest, although Wooster was much more competitive in the second half.

Trailing by as much as 36 at one juncture (60-24), the Scots found an offensive rhythm on their way to the previously mentioned 21-5 run, which cut the deficit to 22 points. That stretch included 10 points from Lauren Hancher, four free throws from Sydney Failing, a 3-pointer from Sydney Grier, and jumpers by Suvi Puripattarapan and Karley Walker.

Kenyon did a lot of its damage from behind the arc, where it went 12-for-22 (54.5 percent), while the Scots were strong at the charity stripe going 12-for-13 (92.3 percent).

Hancher paced the Scots with 14 points, giving the sophomore standout 21 games this season where she reached double figures in the scoring column. Grier was next with eight tallies, while Walker (6 points, 3 assists), Puripattarapan (6 points, 5 rebounds), and Failing (6 points, 2 rebounds) also had noteworthy performances.

Prior to the game, Wooster recognized its seniors – Maura Hall, Puripattarapan, and Walker – who were playing in their final home game for the Scots. Hall ranks fifth all-time in program history in free throw makes with 255, Puripattarapan is ninth in steals (170), and Walker is second in 3-pointers with 133.