By Staff
Kenyon women’s basketball was in action over Thanksgiving break, beating Earlham College and Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) before falling to Ohio Valley University (OVU) 70-67. The Ladies then took down Hiram College and Allegheny College to open conference play this past Saturday and Tuesday.
Despite falling behind 10-0 to start the game against Earlham, Kenyon came back to tie the game at 38 at halftime. In the final half of play, Kenyon pulled away and emerged with an 86-66 victory.
Kenyon then traveled to Cleveland to face CWRU, crusing to an 81-52 victory. Led by senior Co-Captain Maureen Hirt’s 21 points, Kenyon shot over 50 percent from the field and 48 percent from beyond the arc against CWRU.
Next, Kenyon tipped off against OVU and the College of Mount Saint Joseph (MSJ) in the Marietta College Tournament. Kenyon fell to OVU on the first day when OVU made a layup and the impending free throw in the closing seconds to seal the 70-67 win.
Head Coach Suzanne Helfant noted that the team did not follow up on the defensive side of the court.
“I did think that, offensively, we moved the ball very well and we were able to get some good looks at the basket, and we did shoot at a high percentage,” Helfant said. “I think our demise was that we didn’t play great defense in that game; we didn’t play team defense.”
The next day, Kenyon defeated MSJ 74-64 in the tournament’s consolation game.
“That’s one of the best parts of basketball,” Co-Captain Maggie Boelter ’14 said. “It’s that something like that happens, it was tough, but the next day we had another opportunity to prove ourselves and we did a really good job.”
This past Saturday, Dec. 7, Kenyon opened up conference play at Tomsich Arena against Hiram College. In the first half, the Ladies defeated the Hiram defense with tactful ball movement, giving their shooters great looks at the basket. Taking advantage of their open shots, Kenyon jumped out to a 54-30 lead at halftime.
The Ladies maintained momentum in the second half and cycled through their roster in the process, with the Kenyon bench outscoring that of Hiram 49-24 en route to a 91-61 victory.
Kenyon then faced Allegheny Tuesday, Dec. 10. Applying an aggressive full-court press throughout, Allegheny took advantage of multiple turnovers from the Kenyon offense to keep the game tied at 20 midway through the first half. Three minutes later, Lauren Kriete ’15 made a three-pointer from the top of the arc with a defender’s hand in her face to extend Kenyon’s lead to 10. Allegheny, however, brought the game to within four at 39-35 to close out the half.
Undeterred by Allegheny’s rally, Kenyon held the lead for the rest of the game, reducing Allegheny to a meager 25 percent from the field in the second half. A Meredith Williams ’16 jump shot extended Kenyon’s lead to 11 and put the game out of reach in the 78-63 win.
The Ladies will have a three-week break before playing Mount Vernon Nazarene University on Dec. 31.
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