Wooster Falls to Kenyon in Closely-Contested Battle

WOOSTER, Ohio – In a game that was closer than the scoreboard indicates – The College of Wooster trailed by just three points with less than seven minutes remaining, and by only seven with about a minute to go – Kenyon College managed to escape Timken Gymnasium with a 65-52 victory over the Fighting Scots in North Coast Athletic Conference action Saturday afternoon at Timken Gymnasium.

Playing in front of their biggest home crowd of the season, the Scots (1-15, 0-7 NCAC) gave nemesis Kenyon College (5-10, 3-4 NCAC) all it could handle in an exciting battle that was within one or two possessions for much of the second half.

Wooster closed out the first half on a 10-4 scoring run, which included seven points from Rachel Huxhold, to trim its deficit down to seven (28-21) at intermission.

Then Paige Fabry opened up the second half with a pair of free throw makes to pull the Scots within five (28-23), but Kenyon responded with a 3-pointer to go ahead by eight at 31-23. Wooster went right back to work, though, using a quick 5-0 run that included three more points by Fabry to make it a three-point game (31-28).

That was one of three times the Scots were a bucket away from tying the Ladies in the second half. The next one came with 11:53 on the clock, when Huxhold received an inbound pass with just two seconds remaining on the shot clock, and proceeded to bury a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from well behind the arc to make it 39-36.

Minutes later, Sydney Grier drained a 3-pointer on a dish from Rachel Collins that drew Wooster within three yet again, 44-41, with 9:02 on the clock. The score remained that way for several possessions, with Natalie Coschigano giving the Scots a defensive spark by blocking a shot and then outmuscling a Kenyon player for a steal, but ultimately, the Ladies scored the game's next basket (46-41) and went on to push their advantage to 13 (55-42) with 2:51 to go.

Wooster had one last run in it, outscoring Kenyon 10-4 over a two-minute stretch that culminated with an old-fashioned three-point play from Lauren Hancher, which made it a seven-point game (59-52). That was as close as the Scots could get, as Kenyon made its free throws down the stretch to make the game appear more one-sided than it was.

With Hancher (10 points) in foul trouble early in the second half, the Scots played without the top scorer in the North Coast Athletic Conference for a 10-minute stretch, and still hung around, as Huxhold (12 points), Grier (10 points), Collins (8 points), and Fabry (8 points) all picked up the slack and scored above their season averages. Also noteworthy, Hannah Kiser pulled down a team-high five rebounds in just 11 minutes.

Kenyon was also balanced on the stat sheet, with Griffin Tullis pacing her team with 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field.

The Scots will continue their three-game homestand on Wednesday when they host Allegheny College (11-5, 4-3 NCAC) at 7:30 p.m.