Owls struggle to recover from slow start

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — After a rough start to Wednesday night’s women’s basketball game at Wittenberg University, the visiting Kenyon College Owls had a hard time recuperating. On the other side of the court, the host Tigers struggled, too, but they did manage to eventually bounce back and went on to record a 79-52 victory.

During the game’s first six minutes, Kenyon connected on just one field goal, while Wittenberg connected on just two. In that same span, Kenyon missed four shots and turned the ball over eight times, while Wittenberg missed five shots and committed six turnovers.Kenyon’s one field goal, to that point, was a three-pointer from Alyssa Gest, who gave the Owls a 5-4 lead with 3:57 left in the opening quarter. After that, Wittenberg rattled off 11 straight points to move ahead 15-5 and then 18-8 at the end of the quarter. During that run, Faith Martin and Molly Mossing made three-pointers for the Tigers.In the second quarter, the Tigers ran their lead up to 24-8, as Kenyon had just two free throws from Susannah Zimmerman and two three-balls from Gest. First-year Kate Snodgrass then got involved, scored six straight for Kenyon, and cut the team’s deficit to a dozen.That sparked the Owls for a while. Over the next few minutes, they used a variety of scorers to get the Wittenberg lead down to six points before settling on a 36-29 halftime score.Over the course of the second half, Kenyon could not shake its shooting woes. Overall, the Owls shot 28.8 percent (17-of-59) and, at the other end of the court, Wittenberg converted shots at a rate of 52.5 percent (31-of-59). The discrepancy resulted in Kenyon falling behind by as many as 16 points in the third quarter and by as many as 29 in the final quarter.Both teams had issues taking care of the ball throughout the game with Kenyon chalking up 25 turnovers and Wittenberg coughing up 23. The points off those turnovers, however, were not nearly as close. The Tigers rang up 31 points off turnovers, while the Owls mustered just 11.On the bright side for Kenyon, Gest, who battled injuries all season, logged a season-high 23 minutes and led the team with 16 points. She was 4-of-6 from long range and 2-of-3 at the free throw line. Snodgrass ended up with seven points, as did Zimmerman, who also tallied a team-high seven rebounds.For Wittenberg, Mossing put up a game-high 20 points and a team-high five rebounds, helping lift the Tigers’ records to 11-9 overall and 4-5 in North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) play.The loss was Kenyon’s third straight and dropped the Owls to 6-14 overall and 1-8 in the NCAC.  

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