Riccitelli, Sturdivant Each Score 21 in Loss

The College of Wooster women's basketball team opened and finished strong but struggled to contain Earlham College in the second and third quarters, falling 71-63 on Monday.

Wooster was led by 21-point performances from Mackenzie Riccitelli and Ace Sturdivant. Earlham's Jay Bright scored a game-high 23 points on 11 of 19 shooting.

In the first quarter, Wooster went 4 of 5 from beyond the arc to aid them to a 16-14 lead. Sturdivant scored the first 10 points, while Ella Dean hit a pair of 3-pointers to round of the scoring in the quarter.

Dean finished with nine points in the game.

Wooster went cold in the second quarter, shooting 0 of 6 from range and just 3 of 16 from the floor overall. Earlham took advantage with a 7-2 run to start the quarter and a 17-6 period to lead 31-22 at the half.

Earlham (4-7) exploded for 28 points in the third quarter, while Wooster did its best to keep up, scoring 17 of their own. However, the Scots saw their biggest deficit of the game, trailing by 22 with 55 seconds left in the quarter.

Yet, Wooster (2-9) had its best scoring run, 8-0, in the fourth, and cut Earlham's lead to just six with 2:22 remaining. However, Wooster would fail to get closer despite outscoring the Quakers 24-12 in the fourth.

For the second straight game, Wooster committed a season-low 13 turnovers thanks to only having two in the second half.

The Scots were outrebounded 43-33 and gave Earlham seven second chance points.

Wooster shot 39 percent (24 of 61) for the game, went 36 percent (9 of 25) from deep and 75 percent (6 of 8) from the foul line. Earlham shot 44 percent (28 of 64) with a 33 percent mark (6 of 18) from range and a 69 percent mark (9 of 13) from the charity stripe.

This was the 48th meeting between the two teams, but the first time these two have met since the 2013-14 season. Wooster holds the series lead 32-16.

Next, Wooster travels to Wittenberg University on Saturday for a North Coast Athletic Conference matchup.