GAMBIER, Ohio — Kenyon College junior Grace Murphy scored four quick points and grabbed three rebounds, giving the host Owls an early lead in Saturday’s North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) women’s basketball game. Denison University then responded with a 12-4 run in the second quarter, sparking the Big Red to a 79-28 win.
During that key second-quarter spurt, Denison senior Maddie Goodman drained a pair of three-pointers and sophomore Abby Cooch added another to give the Big Red a 24-12 lead. Throughout the second stanza, Denison went 4-for-8 on three-pointers, while Kenyon, trying to play catch-up, went 0-for-3.
The shooting woes for Kenyon weren’t restricted to long range. Over the course of the first half, Kenyon was just 7-for-31 overall (22.6 percent), including an 0-for-8 showing from outside the arc. Both Murphy and Melana Pomerants were 3-for-5 and had six points apiece, but the Owls fell behind 31-15 at the half.
With a comfortable lead, Denison opened the third quarter with a defensive press that resulted in four Kenyon turnovers and a Big Red lead that expanded to as many as 25 points before settling on a 46-22 score at the end of three quarters of play.
The Denison defense continued to dominate for the remainder of the game. The Big Red Red coaxed a total of 19 Kenyon turnovers and flipped those miscues into 28 points.
The Owls couldn’t find the answer and were held without a field goal during a 10-minute stretch that spanned the last two quarters. Meanwhile, the Big Red sealed the outcome by starting the fourth quarter on a 19-0 run.
Kenyon ended the drought at the 4:29 mark of the fourth quarter. That’s when Alyssa Horsley finished off a layup and, on the next trip down the floor, sank a pair of free throws. Horsley joined Murphy and Pomerants as Kenyon’s leading scorers with six points each. Horsley also led Kenyon with eight rebounds. Murphy had four rebounds, while both Eva Winston and Susannah Zimmerman had four points and three boards.
The Owls wound up shooting 6-for-9 (66.7 percent) at the free throw line, but couldn’t get their shooting on target from the field, going 11-for-55 overall (20.0 percent) and 0-for-11 from three-point territory.
Denison, led by 16 points from Abigail Westmeyer and 15 from Cooch, shot 31-for-72 (43.1 percent) overall with a 10-for-29 (34.5 percent) performance from long range.
The Owls will look to turn things around quickly as they head to Anderson University on Monday to take on the Ravens in a 3 p.m. non-conference contest.
