GRANVILLE, Ohio -- Claudia Cooke continued her impressive week with a second straight game with 20-plus points, but her big game could not lead Kenyon College past the Denison University Big Red. The home team blitzed the Owls in the first half, and Kenyon's second-half surge was not enough to overcome the early deficit in a 72-37 Denison win.

The victory boosted Denison's record to 17-6 overall and 8-4 in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC). By dropping its penultimate game, Kenyon fell to 3-21 overall and 1-12 in conference contests.

Cooke again handled the lion's share of Kenyon's scoring efforts, tallying a game-high 22 points. The senior scored seven of the Owls' 13 first-half points before netting seven in the third and eight in the fourth. In addition to her scoring, Cooke corralled a game-best 10 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season, and she blocked two shots while shooting 6-for-7 from the free throw line and 8-of-18 overall.

This marks the second time this season that Cooke has had consecutive games with 20-plus points, and Denison has been the second opponent for each of those streaks. Against the Big Red back on January 13, Cooke scored 23 points and grabbed nine boards. Over her last four outings, the center has averaged 19 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, bringing her season averages to 15.4 points and 8.2 rebounds per outing, totals that rank second and third, respectively, in the NCAC.

The Owls struggled to get much going when the ball was out of Cooke's hands. The rest of the team combined for 15 points, making 4-of-32 field goals, a 12.5 percent clip. Alyssa Gest scored six points with four rebounds in a game-high 33 minutes, but the sophomore struggled to find the mark, shooting 2-for-16 overall and 2-for-10 behind the three-point arc. Fellow sophomore Anissa Hardy collected seven rebounds and blocked three shots while adding five points from the free-throw line.

Denison came out of the gates hot and all but decided the game through the first 20 minutes. The Big Red shot a red-hot 10-for-16 in the first frame, including 4-of-6 from downtown, outscoring the Owls 27-9. They followed up with an even bigger second-quarter margin, shooting 8-of-14 with three threes and adding seven points at the charity stripe to take a 40-point, 53-13 halftime lead into the locker room. Denison's advantage swelled to 48 in the third quarter, but Kenyon bounced back with a 7-1 quarter-ending run before outscoring the Big Red 13-6 in the final frame.

Kenyon has one more outing on the schedule this season. After a week off, the Owls are set to celebrate Senior Day on Saturday, February 17, when they host Hiram College. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. in Tomsich Arena.