Box Score GAMBIER, Ohio (February 21, 2012) The Kenyon College Ladies notched a 69-52 win over Hiram College during Tuesday's first round of the North Coast Athletic Conference women's basketball tournament. The win improved Kenyon's overall record to 19-7 and pushed the Ladies into the conference semifinal round for the eighth straight season.

Kenyon will meet a familiar foe in the semifinals, which will be held on the campus of the tournament's top-seed, DePauw University. The Ladies, the tournament's No. 3-seeded team, will take on Denison University, the No. 2-seed. That game will take place at 6 p.m. Friday. Denison, which defeated Ohio Wesleyan University, 58-43, Tuesday night, ended Kenyon's season last year with an 80-72 victory in the conference semifinals.

Friday's other semifinal game will tip-off at 8 p.m. and will feature host DePauw against No. 5-seed Wittenberg University. The semifinal winners will then met Saturday at DePauw for a 7 p.m. championship game.

Before any of those brackets could be settled, the Ladies had to take care of business against Hiram. Other than falling behind 2-0 at the start, Kenyon maintained a lead the rest of the way. Hiram pulled to within three points a few times in the first half, but Kenyon went into halftime with a 38-31 cushion. The Terriers drew no closer and Kenyon built leads as large as 19 points in the second half.

Sophomore Maureen Hirt led the charge for Kenyon with a game-high 23 points. The Terriers played her tight and wound up paying the price. Although Hirt's superb perimeter game was tempered, she torched the Terriers at the free throw line, pumping in all seven of her attempts. That's been the trend for Hirt over the last three games, a span in which she's gone 29-of-32 (90.6 percent) at the line.

Katie Adlam played one of her best games of the season for the Ladies. She converted her first five field goals and ended up scoring a career-high 13 points. The junior guard went 3-for-4 at the free throw line and also registered two assists and a steal.

Senior Morgan Korinek made sure her final game in Tomsich Arena would turn out in her favor. She took control early on and finished with 13 rebounds, nine points, and three steals. Junior Kayla Ernst added 16 points and four rebounds.

As a team, Kenyon has followed Hirt's lead at the free throw line. Against Hiram, the Ladies were 19-of-24 (79.2 percent). Over the last four games, including the Hiram game, the Ladies went 83-of-99 (83.8 percent) at the line.

Hiram was led by Tiffany Shield's 13 points and nine rebounds. The Terriers closed out their season with a 9-17 record.