Scots Can't Keep Halftime Lead in 76-66 loss to Roanoke

SALEM, Va. – The College of Wooster women's basketball team opened the Susan Dunagan Holiday Classic against host Roanoke College on Sunday and suffered a 76-66 defeat.

Junior Maria Janasko led Wooster with 16 points and six rebounds. Kylie Orr finished with a season-high 15 points, and junior Sarah Marion put up 11 points and seven rebounds.

Roanoke's Kristina Harrel led all scorers with 21 points.

Wooster had a six-point lead at halftime and looked as if they were going to carry momentum into the second half.

In the first quarter, the Scots forced a timeout after a fast break layup from Marion gave Wooster a 7-6 edge midway through the quarter. At the end of the quarter, sophomore Masani Francis recorded a steal and scored a buzzer-beater layup to put Wooster ahead 11-9.

Wooster led for the first 3:23 of the second quarter before Roanoke retook the lead. Wooster got back in front thanks to a pair of 3-pointers from Orr and another from Marion that was part of a 13-5 run.

Wooster led 32-26 at halftime behind nine points from Marion and eight from Orr.

Roanoke made an 8-0 run within the first two minutes of the second half to take a 34-32 lead. Wooster had a three-minute scoring drought to start the half but Maria Janasko ended it to tie the game at 34.

Francis scored six straight points for the Scots in the third quarter as the two teams tied at 42 with 3:19 remaining. The stalemate continued with the score knotted at 48 after three quarters.

In the fourth, Wooster saw its last lead vanish when Sayre Brandstatter hit a 3-pointer for Roanoke to go ahead 55-54 with 7:44 left. The Maroons would expand that lead to seven with 2:15 remaining as Wooster ran out of time to come back.

Wooster shot 33 percent (23-of-69) from the floor, 27 percent (7-of-26) from beyond the arc and 81 percent (13-of-16) from the foul line.

The Scots outrebounded the Maroons 43-39 and outscored them in bench points, 26-18, and second chance points, 16-11. Roanoke scored 42 points in the pain to Wooster's 16.

Roanoke shot 46 percent (28-of-61), made just four 3-pointers (29 percent) and made 73 percent of its free throws (16-of-22).

This was Roanoke's third straight win as they improve to 7-3 overall. Wooster drops to 4-6 and they will finish tomorrow's classic tomorrow against either the University of Mary Washington or Kean University.