GAMBIER, Ohio – The Kenyon Ladies basketball team raced out to a 25-10 first-quarter lead and never looked back as they claimed a 64-50 North Coast Athletic Conference win against Wittenberg University on Wednesday night at Tomsich Arena. For Kenyon, it was the sixth straight win in the series.
 
Sharon Hull scored 13 of those points in the first quarter as the Ladies shot 10-of-20. In addition to the efficient shooting mark, Kenyon (5-1, 1-0 NCAC) also benefitted from eight Wittenberg turnovers. That was a main storyline of the game as the Tigers coughed up the ball 24 times. In turn, the Ladies scored 29 points off those turnovers.
 
Hull tallied 15 points overall for Kenyon while junior teammate Jessica Gerber notched 17 points, a game high. Gerber also tallied game highs in assists (5) and steals (5). Paige Matijasich contributed 12 points while freshman Ellie Schaub came off the bench to score a season-high 11. Defensively, the Ladies held the Tigers, who entered the game as the conference's top-scoring offense (69.5), to their lowest point total of the season.
 
In the opening quarter, the Tigers (2-4, 0-1 NCAC) got within one, 9-8, following a three-ball from Sydney Mayle at the 6:46 mark. However, Kenyon followed with a massive 16-2 run to seize control of the contest. A couple minutes after Mayle's long ball, Hull scored to bring the count to 12-8. The Ladies then went up double digits for the first time (21-10) after Matijasich drained a three-pointer with about one minute left. Kenyon's final bucket of the quarter came on an Ifeoma Archimalo layup at the buzzer.
 
After the first 10 minutes of action, the Ladies had scored 13 points off eight turnovers.
 
Wittenberg also shot 50 percent from the field in the first (4-of-8), but its turnovers caused its offense to never get in rhythm while Kenyon hit six more shots in the period.
 
Second-quarter competition saw Kenyon go up as many as 21 points after Alexi Donnelly swished through a three-pointer with 43 seconds left pushing the home team up, 43-22. By halftime, the Ladies had scored 43 points, its most in a first half this season.
 
In the second half, the Tigers turned the ball over nine more times while hitting 10 field goals. They never got to within any more than 12 points on two occasions.
 
Next on the schedule for Kenyon is a home date with Denison University (4-3) on December 2 at 1 p.m.