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No. 7 Scots Slated to Take on No. 2 Kenyon in NCAC Quarterfinal

Sarah Rapacz
Kylie Orr

This Week's Outlook: The College of Wooster women's basketball team heads down to Gambier, Ohio, for the second time this season as the seventh-seeded Fighting Scots (6-19, 4-12 North Coast Athletic Conference) get set to face second-seeded Kenyon College on Tuesday, Feb. 20 in the quarterfinals of the 2018 NCAC Tournament.

Media Coverage: Fans can follow Wooster's quarterfinal game through the available live stream and live stats web pages provided by Kenyon. Fans can also follow the women's basketball team's Twitter account @WoosterWBB for periodic score updates.

Saturday's Recap: Wooster wrapped up the regular season with a 78-63 loss to Wittenberg University on Saturday at Pam Evans Smith Arena in Springfield, Ohio. Junior Anna Gibbs (Gahanna, Ohio/Westerville North) and first-year Sarah Rapacz (Strongsville, Ohio/Padua Franciscan) tallied 18 points and 12 points, respectively, as Wooster shot a solid 42.4 percent on the day. First-year Maria Janasko (Sheffield Lake, Ohio/Lake Ridge Academy) added a team-high six rebounds while Gibbs dished a game-high seven assists.

Season Series: Kenyon (20-5, 13-3 NCAC) swept the Scots on the year, first with a 62-55 win at Gambier on Jan. 17 before defeating Wooster 77-60 on Feb. 14 in the Scots' final home game of the year. In the first match-up, Wooster remained within single-digits for much of the game and enjoyed a 33-30 early in the third period, but a 6-0 Kenyon run to start the fourth pulled the Ladies ahead for good as they maintained a double-digit lead for most of the final stanza. In last week's match-up, lights-out first-half shooting and a relentless three-point effort – marked by a 14-for-36 clip – propelled the Ladies to their 12th conference victory.

Young Core: Underclassmen have combined for 85 total starts on the year for Wooster, while Gibbs leads the way with 28.5 minutes per game as the only Scot to start all 25 games. The Scots' starting lineup changed slightly between contests against the Ladies, while Rapacz, who has started 22 of 24 games as a mainstay for Wooster's low-post presence, tallied a season-high 15 points against Kenyon last week. Sophomore Akwia Tilton (Southfield, Mich./Roeper School) recorded a team-high 14 points in the team's first go-around at Gambier, while sophomore Kylie Orr (Newport, Ky./Newport) recorded 11 points in 20 minutes off the bench in the most recent contest. On the year, underclassmen have led the Scots in scoring in 12 of 25 games.

Bench Scoring: Wooster's reserves have outscored Kenyon's 61-20 on the season, as Wooster limited the Ladies to seven bench points in last week's 77-60 victory. Over the last six games, Wooster's reserves have outscored their opponents by a combined 146-90. Orr, who leads the team in three-point percentage (35.8), has averaged 10.7 points off the bench over the last seven contests and has recorded three assists in two of the last four games.

Historically Speaking: The Scots trail the Ladies, 24-51, in the all-time series, and have not come out of Gambier victorious since the 2002-03 season. That being said, Wooster enters Tuesday's match-up with its best conference record since the 2012-13 season and its best tournament seeding since the 2009-10 campaign. The Scots will be looking to earn their first seven-win season since 2013-14. Additionally, Wooster's last NCAC Tournament appearance at Kenyon occurred in 2010, as the Ladies narrowly defeated Wooster, 48-47.

Leading Wooster: Gibbs continues to lead the Scots in scoring with 11.3 points per game while Janasko's 5.0 rebounds headlines Wooster's effort on the boards. Rapacz and sophomore Erica Roberts (Akron, Ohio/Archbishop Hoban) average 1.3 and 0.9 blocks per game, respectively, with Rapacz's number ranking third league-wide and Roberts' seventh. Gibbs, who earned her first career NCAC Player of the Week nod two weeks ago after averaging 18.0 points, 7.5 assists and 3.5 steals in wins over Allegheny College and Ohio Wesleyan University, is one of two players in the league to post top-12 averages in points (11.3), assists (3.7) and steals (1.5).