Box Score
DELAWARE, Ohio – The Kenyon College women's basketball team deployed its typical stingy defense Wednesday evening and beat the Ohio Wesleyan University Battling Bishops, 69-48, at Branch Rickey Arena. What sealed the game for the Ladies was their ability to create steals and to hold the host team to just 34.6 percent shooting (18-of-52).
Both teams struggled out of the gate and wound up tied 18-18 with 9:25 left on the first-half clock. At that point, Kenyon's defense turned up the heat, generating four steals in six minutes and posting nine points off those steals. Sophomore
Lauren Kriete was the spark plug throughout the run. She grabbed back-to-back steals that turned into points and helped push Kenyon out to a 26-20 lead. At the 3:09 mark, Kriete capitalized on a
Katie Adlam steal by burying a three-pointer that pushed the Kenyon women ahead by a 33-20 count.
Kriete, who ended up with a personal-best five steals, also contributed seven points and a couple of rebounds. Her thievery boosted the Ladies' overall team total to 13 steals for the game.
Kenyon's defense tightened the screws even further in the second half. The Ladies yielded just eight second-half field goals to Ohio Wesleyan, which shot 29.6 percent (8-of-27) over those final 20 minutes of play.
At the other end of the court, Kenyon did not share in Ohio Wesleyan's shooting inaccuracy. Senior
Kayla Ernst went 10-of-13 and
Maureen Hirt was 7-of-14 as the Ladies shot 49.1 percent (28-of-57) as a team. Ernst led all players with 22 points and six rebounds. She now has 471 points for the season and 1,441 points for her career. Both those totals rank fourth-best in Kenyon history. Hirt finished with 21 points and junior
Maggie Boelter went 3-of-7 from long range to score 13.
Early in the second half, Kenyon grew its lead to 21 points (51-30) and a Boelter three-pointer with 2:50 left in the game gave the Ladies their largest lead at 23 points (69-46).
Kenyon (17-7, 11-4 NCAC) already has second place locked up in the North Coast Athletic Conference standings. The Ladies will finish off their regular-season schedule at home Saturday against Allegheny College.
