Scots Fall to Big Red at Home

The College of Wooster women's basketball team suffered a 91-56 loss to Denison University in North Coast Athletic Conference play on Saturday.

First-year Mackenzie Riccitelli scored 17 points and tallied a team-high six assists to lead the Scots, who were without one of its leading scorers in Ace Sturdivant.

First-year Ellery Kloek scored 11, including nine in the second half. She connected on 3 of 4 shots and went 4 of 4 from the foul line. It was her second time this season scoring in double figures.

Junior Ella Dean finished with seven points. Sophomore Kylie Parsons scored six on 3 of 3 shooting.

Junior Ella Biondi scored four points and finished with a team-high seven rebounds.

Denison had balanced scoring with four in double figures. Abigail Westmeyer led all scorers with 20 points.

Denison (13-8, 6-4 NCAC) thrived getting the ball inside, outscoring Wooster 50-14 in the paint. In addition, their defensive pressure forced Wooster (4-17, 1-9 NCAC) to commit a season-high 38 turnovers, which resulted in 46 points.

Earlier this year, Denison took the prior matchup 75-53. Wooster trailed by 22 at halftime then, but found themselves trailing by just 14 on Saturday.

The game was determined by a pair of runs early in each half.

Denison opened the game with a 12-1 lead before Parsons gave Wooster its first bucket with 4:15 left in the quarter.

Wooster played almost even with the Big Red in the second quarter and saw a 40-26 deficit at halftime.

However, Denison opened the second half with a 16-0 run, which was finally stopped on a pair of free throws from Kloek with 4:33 remaining in the quarter. From there, Wooster put forth its best run of the game at 7-0.

Overall, Wooster shot 38 percent (17 of 45) from the floor compared to Denison's 51 percent (35 of 69) mark. Wooster was just 4 of 16 from range (25 percent) but shot a decent 18 of 21 (86 percent) from the foul line.

Wooster also outrebounded Denison 31-29.

The Scots travel to Hiram College on Wednesday before hosting Ohio Wesleyan University on Feb. 15 for their home finale.