By Rebecca Dann
The women’s basketball team ended their regular season this past Saturday on senior day with a triumphant win against the College of Wooster, 71-51. The game marked the Ladies’s first win after a six-game losing streak, bringing their overall North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) record to 5-11 and their overall record to 7-17.
“The win against Wooster was definitely really good, especially because we were able to share the ball so well and we had quite a few players [score] in double digits,” Avery Anderson ’15 said. “So when everyone is contributing like that it’s really fun.”
At the start of the first half, Wooster managed to score the first basket, putting them in the lead. Just 30 seconds later, Kenyon tied the score 2-2, as Anderson scored a layup. Sarah Hobbs ’15 followed suit and scored Kenyon’s second layup of the game, bringing the team into the lead. Wooster then tied the score back up with two good free throws, but the Ladies quickly retaliated as Griffin Tullis ’18 scored a layup bringing the score to 6-4. From this point on in the game, Kenyon maintained their lead. With just three minutes remaining in the first half, Kenyon led the Fighting Scots by 13 points, 32-19. Wooster put in a good effort to close the gap between the scores before the end of the first half, and managed to score another five points, but the Ladies still held a considerable lead of 32-24 at the end of the 20 minutes.
The Ladies gained even more momentum in the second half, increasing their lead from eight to 21 points by the time there were two minutes left in the game, bringing the score to 66-45. Wooster made four free throws within the next 30 seconds to up their score to 66-49, but Tullis made a 3-pointer to bring Kenyon back up to a 20-point lead. Wooster and Kenyon managed another layup apiece within the last minute of the game, making the final score 71-51.
Tullis, Anderson and Bailey Dominguez ’17 each contributed an impressive 13 points in the game. Molly Rubin ’16 also had a strong performance, as she managed to score a total of 10 points.
“I don’t think our last home game could have been any better,” Head Coach Suzanne Helfant said. “I thought that it was a tremendous team effort. I thought our three seniors played exceptional games and I thought that we honored them in a way that we were really proud of everything that they’ve done for our program.”
This past Tuesday, the Ladies entered the post-season conference tournament and played against Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. The two teams appeared evenly matched during the first half, but Wittenberg gained the lead with just five minutes left in the period and Kenyon was unable to catch up for the remainder of the game.
“Wittenberg is a tough team and they came out really ready to play,” Anderson said. “We just made some mistakes, some mental errors at the end of the game, but we fought with them the whole time.” With five minutes left in the second half, the Ladies were only behind by one point, but Wittenberg quickly pulled ahead again, and the Ladies lost 67-61 and were eliminated from the tournament.
“It was a great game,” Helfant said. “I was very proud of our team. I was very proud of the way they battled them. It was just kind of the story of our season, though.: we got close but we just couldn’t get over the hump. This year has been a great learning experience for our younger kids. I think we’re going to grow tremendously from it. I think that our three seniors were great leaders for this program and we’re going to miss them.”