Walker Scores Career-High 22 in Tight Contest with Tigers

SPRINGFIELD – First-year Mia Walker scored a career-high 22 points and almost led The College of Wooster women's basketball team to an upset, but the Scots fell 52-44 to Wittenberg University on Tuesday.

Wittenberg (15-4), tied atop the North Coast Athletic Conference with an 8-1 record, never had time to relax in Tuesday's win. A first quarter push and low scoring first half helped as they fended off a Wooster team who scored 21 fourth-quarter points and got to within five in the closing minutes.

Walker upped her previous career-high by one point, going a perfect 8-for-8 from the foul line and shooting 6-of-19 from the floor.

Five other Scots scored four points, including Erica Beaty who pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.

Wittenberg was led by a 12-point, 13-rebound double-double from Jade Simpson.

The 52 points by Wittenberg was its third lowest scoring total of the season, and the lowest point total its won by this season.

The Scots scored the first two points of the game thanks to a pair of free throws from Walker. However, they could not expand that lead before Witteberg's first basket at the 6:40 mark.

From there, Wittenberg won the quarter 16-7, which ended on a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Walker.

Wooster only scored 13 points in the first half but still found themselves trailing but just 12 points. The Scots limited Wittenberg to a 30 percent clip from the field and didn't allow a 3-pointer in the first half and for the remainder of the game.

Wooster trailed by as many as 19 but got it down to eight with a minute left in the game. A Walker 3-pointer with 23 seconds left made it a 48-43 game, but not enough time was left to complete the comeback.

Wooster shot 29 percent (16-of-55) from the floor, 18 percent (3-of-17) from 3-point range and 64 percent (9-of-14) from the charity stripe. Wittenberg shot 30 percent (18-of-61) from the floor, went 0-of-9 from deep and shot 70 percent (16-of-23) from the foul line.

Wittenberg outrebounded Wooster 53-27 but only had five second chance points. Wooster scored 12 points off 19 Wittenberg turnovers.

Wooster now sits at 1-19 and 0-9 in conference play. The Scots travel to Oberlin College on Saturday.