Box Score GAMBIER, Ohio – Senior guard Maureen Hirt proved once again that she loves playing in Tomsich Arena against rival Denison University. One year after dropping 33 points in a home game against the Big Red, Hirt stuck it to Denison again Wednesday night, piling up 31 points and steering the Kenyon College women's basketball team to a convincing 65-51 conference victory.

From the opening tip, the Ladies' goal of getting the ball in Hirt's hands was clear and she responded by tossing in eight of Kenyon's first 15 points. Things would slow down a bit for Hirt after that initial run, but her teammates picked up where she left off. The Ladies went on to ride out an 18-8 run and opened up a huge 33-10 lead before getting to halftime with a 40-19 advantage.

The Ladies' offense, which shot 58.6 percent in the first half, was matched by its defense, which held Denison to just nine first-half field goals and 31.0 percent shooting. By the break, Hirt had 11 points and fellow guards Maggie Boelter and Meredith Williams had eight.

A stunned Denison team never recovered from the Kenyon blitz. The Big Red could only get as close as 16 points early in the second half and never got any closer than the final 14-point margin. Hirt only got stronger as the game went on. She was 8-of-13 with 20 points in the second half. Early in the period, she scored 14 straight points for the Ladies and pushed a 40-24 Kenyon lead out to a 54-27 cushion.
Kenyon wound up scoring 25 points in the second half and Hirt had 20 of them. Both Boelter and Williams finished with eight. Boelter also had six assists and Williams latched on to a team-high five rebounds.

After her Wednesday-night performance, Hirt now has 411 points this season. She still leads the team, as well as the entire North Coast Athletic Conference, with a scoring average of 19.6 points per game. Her career point total also increased to 1,731. With three-regular season games left and at least one postseason game still to play, Hirt is only 63 points shy of Kenyon's all-time scoring leader, Kim Graf, who finished her career with a program record 1,794 points.

Kenyon's win over Denison also improved the Ladies' chances of snaring one of the four top seeds in the NCAC Tournament, a position that comes with home-court advantage in the first round. The Ladies, now 13-8 overall and 8-5 in the NCAC, currently hold down fourth place in the standings. Following first-place and undefeated DePauw University, Ohio Wesleyan (14-8, 9-4 NCAC) owns second place and Denison (17-6, 9-5 NCAC) has third place.

Up next for the Ladies is a trip to No. 1-ranked DePauw (23-0, 14-0 NCAC). That game will take place Saturday at 3 p.m. in Neal Fieldhouse.