Owls take early lead, fall to Tigers in NCAC opener

GAMBIER, Ohio – Tipping off the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) schedule, the Kenyon College women’s basketball team took on Wittenberg University on Thursday night from Tomsich Arena. 

Despite jumping out to a lead in the first quarter and taking it to halftime, the Owls could not quite keep up with the Tigers in the second half, narrowly falling 67-62 in the end. 

Kenyon (3-5, 0-1 NCAC) came out hot from three, hitting 3-of-4 (75 percent) in the first quarter. Alyssa Horsley found twine first at 7:15 for the Owls first points, and for the rest of the quarter the team ripped off an 8-4 run thanks to triples from Antonia Marzini and Lauren Muñoz. After 10 minutes, Kenyon took a 13-7 lead. 

In the second, Grace Murphy hooped another three pointer followed by baskets from Rae Oberster and Horsley, but Wittenberg stayed tight after shooting 3-of-6 from the field to open the quarter. 

After Marzini hit two at the charity stripe to give the Owls their biggest lead of the day at 22-13 with 4:48 left in the half, the Tigers came back with a 10-4 run to close the quarter, leaving Kenyon a 26-23 advantage at the break. 

Wittenberg carried its momentum after halftime. After Anissa Hardy and Kiana Mollabashy combined for four points, the Tigers sprung to an 7-0 run nearing the midpoint thanks to a 2-for-2 mark from the field and a three to take the team’s first lead since early in the first. Oberster found a bucket to end the run and Kenyon finished the third on a 6-5 run, but trailed 39-36 with 10 minutes to play. 

The fourth was by far the highest-scoring quarter of the game, with each team beating its game high quarter total by over 10 points. Susannah Zimmerman got the fourth started for the Owls with a quick layup and a three to try and cut into the Tiger lead at 41-39 with 6:51 left to play. 

Kenyon lost one point in the deficit but hung with Wittenberg down the stretch, as Horsley, Muñoz and Murphy combined for seven points, setting the score at 49-46 with 3:32 remaining. The final three minutes resulted in a 16-16 boom of points, as Zimmerman and Mollabashy led the way with five points each, but the Owls could not make up any ground thanks to good shooting on the other side from Wittenberg. In the end, the Tigers were able to take the game 67-62. 

Horsley led the way with 12 points on the day, with Zimmerman not far behind at 10 points and a team high three assists and five rebounds. For the game, Kenyon shot 7-of-15 (46.7 percent) from beyond the arc, but forfeiting a 31-26 edge in rebounds and 22-17 turnover deficit proved to be the difference. 

The Owls’ record moves to 3-5 on the season and 0-1 in the conference. Up next, Kenyon will host Geneva College (Pa.) on Monday, December 8 at 6:30 pm from Gambier. 

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