Buckeye Reporter

With 24 points, nine rebounds and the game-winning shot, Kenyon College junior Claudia Cooke carried the Owls basketball team to a come-from-behind 67-65 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) win over The College of Wooster on Wednesday evening at Tomsich Arena.

Kenyon trailed by as many as ten points in the first half, thanks in part to Wooster's Alyssa Chritz, who scored 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds in her first 18 minutes of work. Most of her damage was done at the free throw line, where she went 10-of-14 in the half.

Chritz, who came into the game averaging just 4.0 points and 6.4 rebounds, helped stake the Fighting Scots to leads of 23-16 after one quarter of play and 37-30 after two quarters.

Kenyon made the right adjustments at half, feeding the ball to Cooke on the offensive end and slowing down Chritz on the defensive end.

Cooke scored the first bucket of the second half. That ignited a 14-5 Kenyon run in which Bela Krslovic and Alexis Newman buried three-pointers. Following Newman's three-ball, Cooke hit a layup to give Kenyon a 43-42 lead at the mid-way point of the third quarter. She later converted another layup, helping the Owls close out the quarter with a 51-50 advantage.

Meanwhile, Chritz connected on four more free throws. She ended the game 14-of-18 at the line, setting a new Tomsich Arena single-game record for free throws made. Those four points, however, would be the only four she scored in the second half.

The teams went back-and-forth in the fourth, which featured four lead changes and three tied scores. The last of those tied scores came with 10 seconds left. That's when Wooster's Mia Walker hit 1-of-2 free throw attempts to knot that game at 65-65.

Kenyon, with the ball and coming out of a timeout, went back to Cooke to seal the deal. An inbound pass from Mikayla Rudolph went to Alyssa Gest, who returned it right back to Rudolph on the left wing. As Cooke set up camp on the left block, Rudolph got the ball to her. Cooke corralled the pass, split two defenders, got to the right side and made a layup with just 3.9 seconds remaining.

Wooster could only answer with a desperation half-court shot that missed its mark as the final buzzer sounded.

Providing additional support on the offensive end for Kenyon were Gest and Anissa Hardy, who each closed out the game with 10 points. Rudolph had eight, while Krslovic and Katie Orefice both finished with six. Hardy also grabbed nine rebounds, just one shy of posting a double-double, while Orefice served up eight assists.

Chritz finished with 20 for Wooster and was surpassed by Walker, who led the Fighting Scots with 21. Shal Gulliams pitched in with 14.

The win moved Kenyon to 5-8 overall and 1-2 in NCAC play. The loss dropped Wooster to 1-13 and 0-2 in the NCAC. 

Original source can be found here