ALLIANCE, Ohio – The University of Mount Union Purple Raiders took control early Tuesday night and dominated the paint to post a 79-61 non-conference win over the visiting Kenyon College Ladies basketball team.
The win improved Mount Union to 5-1, while the loss dropped the Ladies to 3-4. The loss was also the Ladies third in a row. That marked the first time that's happened since early in the 2015-16 season, a span of 105 games.
Hailey Peoples-O'Neil was the spark plug that got the Purple Raiders going. She chalked up the game's first basket and then scored four more to push her team out to a 9-5 lead. Kenyon stormed back to tie it at 9-9, but a wave of Mount Union subs produced a 14-3 run that closed out the first quarter with the Ladies trailing by 11.
Kenyon then looked to long-range shooting to cut into that lead during second-quarter action.
Paige Matijasich,
Grace Connery, and
Katie Orefice all connected from beyond the arc and pulled the Ladies within eight points (37-29) at the half.
Mount Union had success working the ball down low and ended up scoring 14 first-half points in the paint. The home team kept going to the well in the second half and logged another 22 points in the paint. Overall, the Purple Raiders outscored the Ladies, 36-18, down low. The Purple Raiders also held a big advantage in bench points, outscoring the Ladies 33-15.
At the start of the second half,
Amanda Carroll cut Mount Union's lead to six after scoring the first bucket for the Ladies. The Purple Raiders, however, scored the next 11 points, with eight registered via the layup. Kenyon would get no closer than nine points for the rest of the third quarter and no closer than 12 points in the fourth.
Connery ended up going 5-of-14 from three-point range and totaled up a team-high 15 points. Matijasich added 13 and
Ellie Schaub chalked up eight for the Kenyon team, which shot at 33.3 percent (21-of-63) for the night. Matijasich balanced out her stat line with team-highs of seven rebounds and five assists.
Mount Union had 14 different players score at least one point. Tori Rappach complemented the inside game by hitting 5-of-10 three-pointers for a game-high 17 points. Bri Gassman tossed in 13 and Sarah Hessel added 10 for the Purple Raiders, who fired at a rate of 48.2 percent (27-of-56).
The Ladies will break for Thanksgiving and then turn their attention to the upcoming North Coast Athletic Conference schedule, which starts December 4 with a home game against Oberlin College.
