ADA, Ohio – The Ohio Northern University Polar Bears, a team that was 23-6 and made an NCAA Tournament appearance one season ago, jumped out to a 20-5 lead within the first eight minutes of Wednesday night's women's basketball game with Kenyon College. The Ladies never fully recuperated from the slow start and wound up on the short end of a 66-46 final score.

The two teams traded buckets to start the game. The Polar Bears then rattled off a couple of three-pointers in a 10-0 run. Kenyon senior guard Sarah Hobbs stopped the bleeding temporarily with a three-ball of her own, but Ohio Northern charged right back with eight consecutive points to move ahead 20-5 with 12:13 still showing on the first-half clock.

The Ohio Northern lead ballooned to as many as 19 points while senior center Jordan Kimes popped in 11 first-half points for the Polar Bears, who claimed a 35-19 advantage at intermission.

The Ladies, who fell to 1-2 with the loss, never got closer than 13 points the rest of the way.

Sophomore guard Sidney Cera tried to pull Kenyon back into the thick of things with nine second-half points, but none of her teammates scored more than five points over those final 20 minutes. Cera finished the game with a team-best 11 points, four of which came in a perfect 4-of-4 performance at the free throw line.

As a team, the Ladies shot well from the line, going 11-of-13 (84.6 percent), but a 14-of-55 overall showing (25.5 percent) from the floor put the Ladies in a deep hole.

Following up on Cera's 11 points, Hobbs finished with eight points and a team-high eight rebounds. Bailey Dominguez also scored eight points and Avery Anderson chipped in with six for Kenyon.

Kimes didn't even take a shot for the Polar Bears in the second half and finished with 11. Meanwhile, Carly Thomas recorded eight points in both halves and logged a game-high 16 points for Ohio Northern, which improved to 2-1 with the win.