SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The Kenyon College women’s basketball team faced a challenging opponent in Thursday night’s North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) opener. The Owls took to the road to face Wittenberg University and ended up on the short side of a 82-43 final.
The Tigers, who shared a part of the NCAC regular-season championship one season ago, improved to 6-1 overall and 1-0 in the NCAC after Thursday’s result. On the other end of the court, the defeat dropped Kenyon to 1-6 overall and 0-1 in NCAC play.
First-year guard Kiana Mollabashy added to an impressive start to her collegiate career, leading the Owls with 12 points, while adding four rebounds and two assists. Fellow first-year Susannah Zimmerman chipped in with nine points and three boards. The young duo is starting to get more comfortable at the collegiate level and continues to make significant contributions for the Kenyon team.
Additional scoring for the Owls came from sophomore Grace Murphy, who added eight points on efficient 3-of-6 shooting from the field, and additional rebounds came from junior Megan Lieb, who snared a team-best five off the glass.
From the start, Wittenberg took advantage of its familiar surroundings and shot 61.3 percent (19-of-31) in the first half to build leads of 21-10 after one quarter of play and 50-25 after two.
Despite facing a significant halftime deficit, the Owls showed resilience in the second half. The team’s defensive effort was highlighted by eight steals with Eva Winston, Murphy and Zimmerman recording two apiece.
Wittenberg’s Karsen Karlblom led all scorers, throwing down 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting, which included a 5-of-8 showing from beyond the three-point arc.
The game marked the first time this season that Kenyon played without starting center, Anissa Hardy. The team’s leading scorer and strong interior defender, Hardy is likely out for the rest of the season with a knee injury.
Kenyon will look to learn from the loss and will return to action on Monday with a non-conference home game against the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. The Owls have the match-up slated as their Faculty Appreciation Game and tip-off is set for 6 p.m.
