Kenyon’s strong start fizzles out against Geneva

GAMBIER, Ohio – Playing in its final game at Tomisch Arena of 2025 before heading to Puerto Rico for a holiday tournament, the Kenyon College women’s basketball team hosted Geneva College (Pa.) on Monday night. 

Despite a strong early performance from Alyssa Horsley that gave the Owls an early lead, the Golden Tornadoes stormed back to recapture the lead in the second and never looked back, eventually taking the game 80-73.

Kenyon came out on fire to start the contest, shooting 9-of-11 (81.8 percent) from the field and a perfect 4-of-4 from beyond the arc in the first quarter. Grace Murphy splashed a triple for the Owls’ first bucket of the game, followed up with layups from Horsley and Susannah Zimmerman to give the home team a 7-2 lead. 

From the 7:28 to 4:14 mark in the first, Horsley was the only Owls player to find the hoop, charging to five points despite Geneva taking an eight point lead at 20-12. To close the opening frame, however, Kenyon responded with a 14-2 run of its own, with Rae Oberster and Horsley each scoring five points to send Horsley into double digits and the Owls to a 26-22 lead after one. 

Eva Winston was the leader of the second quarter, scoring eight of the team’s 13 points. The Golden Tornadoes swiped six steals in the second, and despite Kenyon shooting three-of-five (60 percent) from three in the quarter, the visitors took a 44-39 lead to the break. 

Both teams cooled down from the floor in the third, but it was Geneva who took control of the game, building a lead as high as 10 at 2:50 in the quarter. Kenyon shot just 3-of-11 (27.2 percent) from the field in the third, as Zimmerman led the Owls with four points. With 10 minutes to play, the score was set at 61-50 Golden Tornadoes. 

Trying to cut into the Geneva lead, Kenyon started the fourth quarter on a 15-8 run to cut the lead to 69-65 with five minutes to play. Anissa Hardy and Zimmerman each had four points as the Owls shot 6-of-9 (66.7 percent) from the floor and held the Golden Tornadoes to 36 percent. 

Zimmerman, who led the team with 12 second half points and 15 on the day, tried her best to get the team back within striking distance by adding four points in the final minutes, but it was not enough to catch Geneva, who hit four of six free throws and had two steals down the stretch to finish off an 80-73 victory. 

The Owls shot 43.6 percent from the field and 47.4 from three for the game. The squad was just barely edged out with a 39-37 rebound gap, but lost the turnover margin 31-21, which led to 33 points for Geneva. 

Zimmerman added to her leading effort with a team high seven rebounds and two steals, all team highs. Horsley and Hardy each joined her in double figures, scoring 14 and 12 points respectively with Hardy tying for the rebound lead and adding a block. Kiana Mollabashy led the team from beyond the arc with three triples. 

The Owls’ record drops to 3-6 on the season. Up next, Kenyon will head to San Juan, Puerto Rico for two games to close out the year. The first of which tips off at noon on Sunday, December 28 at noon against Wilkes University. 

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