By Rebecca Dann

The women’s basketball team had a triumphant 67-51 win this past Saturday on their home court against fellow North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) team Hiram College. Last Wednesday, the Ladies faced Wittenberg University and lost 49-39, resulting in their fifth conference loss. With this win against Hiram, the Ladies were able to improve upon their conference record, which now stands at 4-5.

Within the first 30 seconds of the game, Hiram gained a 2-0 lead. A minute later, Bailey Dominguez ’17 managed a 3-pointer to bring Kenyon up 3-2. Avery Anderson ’15 quickly followed suit with a lay-up to make the lead 5-2. Hiram then tied the score 5-5 in a matter of seconds, but Anderson retaliated with another good lay-up to bring Kenyon back into the lead. The Ladies would maintain their lead for the rest of the game and it only grew larger as the game continued. By halftime, Kenyon was leading Hiram by 11 points, with a score of 30-19.

The Ladies continued to dominate the court throughout the second half; Kenyon improved their lead from 11 points to 16 points within the first two minutes. Anderson contributed another lay-up to bring the score to 32-19. Hiram managed to gain another two points, but were still far from catching the Ladies. Griffin Tullis ’18 followed after with another good lay-up for Kenyon, which brought the score to 34-21. Anderson then brought the Ladies to a 16-point lead, as she made a 3-pointer 30 seconds later. The Ladies would eventually win by 16 points, with a final score of 67-51.

Dominguez led the team in points, contributing a total of 17. Anderson followed close behind with 16 points, while Tullis put up 15. Sarah Hobbs ’15 also had an impressive performance, gathering a total of 11 rebounds and contributing five assists. “Our offense is starting to look a lot better,” Hobbs said. “Our defense has been really strong all season, but we haven’t been able to score that much. And we had three players have season highs against Hiram, which was awesome.”

The Ladies then took on Oberlin College last night, to whom they lost earlier in the season 56-40. “Oberlin traditionally isn’t a really strong program in our conference but this year they’re really good,” Hobbs said. “We lost to them at home earlier in the season and I think we definitely came into that game kind of thinking that this was going to be an easy win and we were not mentally prepared at all. But we’re definitely taking this game much more seriously.”

Oberlin is currently tied for second in the conference with a record of 6-3. “We’ve done a lot of scouting, and we’ve seen them before so we know what they’re going to throw at us,” Hobbs said. “And we’re coming off of the win with Hiram so we’re confident about our shooting, which is really good because that’s going to help us going into an away game.”

The Ladies started the game with a 5-0 lead, but they were not able to keep the momentum. Despite a career-high 20 points from Anderson, and a strong second half, the Yeowomen beat the Ladies 59-46.

Kenyon will next play Allegheny College this coming Saturday on their home court at 1 p.m.