GAMBIER, Ohio – Senior Paige Matijasich logged 11 points and nine rebounds Friday night, but she and the rest of the Kenyon College women's basketball team couldn't keep pace with Mount Vernon Nazarene University, an NAIA team. The visiting Cougars benefitted from 21 Kenyon turnovers and ran away with a 76-42 win.

Kenyon's turnovers resulted in 24 points for Mount Vernon Nazarene, which improved its overall record to 10-3. The Cougars also controlled the paint, outscoring the Ladies down low, 40-22, and outrebounding the Ladies, 40-33.

First-quarter play was pretty even until Mount Vernon Nazarene started to pull away with a three-pointer from Sage Brannon at the 3:11 mark. That gave the Cougars a 17-13 advantage. Rylee Pireu then closed out the quarter with a jumper to push the lead to six.

Ellie Schaub got two of those points back for Kenyon at the start of the second quarter, but the Cougars responded with a 9-0 run in which Pireu and Brannon scored two apiece. Two minutes later, that same duo sparked a 9-3 run that broke open the game and vaulted the Cougars to a 37-22 halftime lead.

Mount Vernon Nazarene ended up outscoring the Ladies, 18-9, in the second quarter and then 23-9 in the third quarter to seal the deal. With a 29-point margin heading into the fourth quarter, both coaches unloaded their bench.

Matijasich came up one rebound shy of posting her sixth double-double of the season. She's averaging team-bests of 16.7 points  and 8.5 rebound per game for the Ladies, who slid to 4-7 with the loss.

The rest of Kenyon's offense came from Schaub, who had eight points and from Jakkie Tomlinson and Madelyn Anderson, who each scored seven.

Pireu led the Cougars with 15 points, seven rebounds and five steals. Taylor Gregory scored a game-high 17, while Maggie Coe and Brannon finished with 14 and 10 points, respectively.

The Ladies have the next two weeks away from competition and won't play again until December 31, when they take on the DePauw University Tigers in a conference road game.