Holloway has Career Night as Second Half Rally Not Enough to Down Hiram, 76-71

First-year Harley Holloway scored a career-high 23 points and led a second half charge for The College of Wooster women's basketball team in a 76-71 loss to Hiram College on Friday.

Holloway, in her first career start, led all scorers on 9-of-17 shooting and scored 19 of her points in the second half. Junior Masani Francis followed with 18 points, senior Maria Janasko recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds, and junior Krista English came off the bench to produce eight points and eight rebounds.

Hiram, in their first game of the year, was led by a 20-point, 10-rebound night from Tashauna Wright. Haley Thompson also recorded a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Hiram led by as many as 20 early in the third quarter before Wooster slowly cut away at the lead. Wooster trailed by 11 after three quarters, 60-49, and then started the fourth on a 12-2 run to make it 62-61 with 6:58 remaining in the game. 

Holloway scored seven points in the span, including the 3-pointer to cut the lead to one. Francis had a successful and-1 attempt, and Janasko had a basket in the paint to answer Hiram's lone basket.

However, Wooster never captured the lead. Namara Rwakatare, who finished with nine rebounds, scored her only bucket with 6:18 left to make it a one point game again at 64-63.

From there, Hiram connected on two 3-pointers off of turnovers and brought the lead back up to seven at 72-65 with 3:37 to go. Wooster then scored the next five behind two free throws from Alyssa Chritz and a steal and fast-break layup from Holloway as Wooster trailed 72-69 with two minutes left.

Trailing by three with 25 seconds left, Wooster got the stop they needed but failed to collect the rebound, which then led to a layup that essentially put the game away.

Hiram came out of the gates with a 20-9 first quarter and continued with a 22-16 second. Wooster took the third quarter 24-18 and the fourth 22-16.

Wooster finished the game shooting 35 percent (26-of-75) from the court, 33 percent (6-of-18) from 3-point range and 87 percent (13-of-15) from the foul line.

Hiram was 27-of-76 (36 percent) for the game, 28 percent from deep (9-of-32) and 72 percent (13-of-18) from the charity stripe.

The Terriers (1-0) outrebounded the Scots (0-7) 52-44 and scored 20 second chance points to Wooster's 10. Both teams scored 32 points in the paint, and Wooster outscored Hiram on fast break points 15-8 and in bench points 16-9.

The two teams meet again Saturday at Hiram. Tip-off is slated at 6 p.m. and will be Wooster's final regular season game of the year.