WBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

After dropping back-to-back games to NCAC titans Kenyon and Denison, Carnegie Mellon gets a measure of revenge tonight, dropping Oberlin 72-47 in Pittsburgh.  Syrea Thomas gave her all for the Yeowomen, recording 16 points and 10 rebounds, but it was not enough to save Oberlin.

[David Collinge]

Five games on tap for tomorrow, four of them conference games, and two of them with LIVE VIDEO!!!   Who needs football?

OWU (3-1, 0-0) at Allegheny (4-3, 1-0), 1pm (Live Stats)
Oberlin (0-5, 0-0) at Earlham (1-2, 0-0), 1pm (Live Stats)
Baldwin-Wallace (3-2) at Kenyon (5-1, 0-0), 1pm (Live Stats, Audio, and VIDEO)
Denison (4-1, 0-0) at Hiram (0-3, 0-0), 2pm (Live Stats, Audio, and VIDEO)
Wittenberg (1-3, 0-0) at Wooster (1-4, 0-1), 2pm (Live Stats and Audio + Wittenberg audio)

[David Collinge]

OWU 62, Allegheny 59...OWU comes back to nip the Gators and post a key road win.  The Gators led by five at the half and still held a one-point advantage with 2:22 left, but the Bishops closed the game on a 6-2 run to hold off their hosts.  OWU got a huge game from sophomore post Dany Finck, who contributed 16 points and 12 rebounds.  Pam Quigney added 15 points, including the only made three-pointer the Bishops enjoyed all day (in 14 attempts).  Allegheny was led by Jill Gregory's 17 points, assisted by Emilie Simone with 14 points and 8 rebounds.  'Gheny outshot the Bishops 41% to 37%, but got five fewer attempts thanks to OWU's +10 advantage on the glass.  They also saw much less of the free throw line with just five attempts (making four) to OWU's 13 (making eleven.) 

Oberlin 68, Earlham 52...The visiting Yeowomen notch their first win of the season, hitting a sizzling 52% of their shots in downing Earlham.  First-year Allison Anderson had a dream outing, recording a rare triple-double with 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists, and had five steals to boot.  Earlham got a 14-point, 8-rebound effort from first-year Jessica Wooden.

Baldwin-Wallace 57, Kenyon 44...Trailing by 4 at the half, B-W opened the second period with a 22-2 run and Kenyon could never recover.  The Ladies doggedly cut the margin to as low as six with 3:02 left, but that's where the Kenyon comeback (and, coincidentally, the videocast) cut out.  Morgan Korinek had 11 points and eight rebounds, and her frontcourt mate Kathleen Williams contributed 8 points and nine boards.  Olivia French's 14 points led a balanced Yellow Jacket attack, while Catherine Spisak added 8 points and 13 rebounds.

Denison 79, Hiram 62...The homestanding Terriers got out to a quick 10-4 advantage, but the Big Red used runs of eight and eleven points to put things back in order and ease out of Price Gymnasium with the victory.  DU got scoring contributions from eleven players, four of them in double figures, led by Shaina Kaiser and Lucy Follansbee with 15 apiece.  Overall the Big Red shot 53% from the field and made six of 15 attempts from the arc.  Hiram, held to just 34% shooting, was led by Ashley Drum's 19 points and Alex Dellas' 10 rebounds.

Wittenberg 61, Wooster 53...Wittenberg stepped off the delayed bus and immediately started hammering the host Scots, building an early 25-10 lead, but the Scots managed to fight back and turn this into a competitive game.  Wooster even managed to take the lead with 10:30 remaining, but the Tigers responded with a 9-0 run and stayed well clear of the Scots the rest of the way.  Stephanie Boardman recorded a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds, and was complimented by double-figure efforts from Elise Jenkins (14) and Katherine Hueter (12).  Wooster had a familiar-looking box score: 19 from Kym Wenz and 12 from Kaitlin Krister, with nobody else scoring more than four points.

Updated standings:
Denison 1-0 conference, 5-1 overall
OWU 1-0, 4-1
Wittenberg 1-0, 2-3
Oberlin 1-0, 1-5
Allegheny 1-1, 4-4
Kenyon 0-0, 5-2
Earlham 0-1, 1-3
Hiram 0-1, 0-4
Wooster 0-2, 1-5

[David Collinge]

Looking to build momentum after notching their first victory over the weekend, Oberlin will travel to University Circle to take on Case Western Reserve tonight at 7pm.   Then tomorrow Earlham looks to recover from their defeat by the Yeowomen, traveling to Goshen to take on the Maple Leafs at 7pm.

There doesn't seem to be any live coverage available for either game, not even Live Stats.   

[David Collinge]

In what was probably the closest thing to a slam dunk we'll ever see in NCAC women's hoops, the conference today selected Oberlin first-year Allison Anderson as its Player of the Week.  All Anderson did was record a breathtaking triple-double (with five steals) in Oberlin's victory at Earlham.  She also had an eight-point, seven-rebound, four-assist game against Carnegie Mellon, and played all 80 minutes of the two games.  Congratulations, Allison, well done! 

[David Collinge]

Case Western Reserve 71, Oberlin 60...Syrea Thomas' 29 points, which included seven treys, and a furious rally from 24 points down, were not enough as the Yeowomen become CWRU's third straight NCAC victim.  Allison Anderson followed up her huge Saturday with a 15-point, seven-assist evening.  Case has one more game left in this run through their former conference, as they will travel to face Hiram on the 16th.  After that, case will next play at Wittenberg's year-end tournament, with a chance to face the host Tigers on the second day, Dec. 30.  Oberlin, which falls to 1-6 with the loss, next will lace 'em up on Friday when they host Ursuline.

[David Collinge]

It appears that there will be live audio available for tonight's 7pm game between Earlham and Goshen.  Now, now, settle down, control yourselves you unruly mob.   Click here to listen.

UPDATE:
To those of you who took advantage of this option, I offer my condolences.  
Goshen 86, Earlham 55
Nothing to see here, folks, please, move along, step lively now...

[David Collinge]

Okay, let's concentrate on the Wednesday games, including one conference game, a crucial one at that:
Denison (1-0, 5-1) at Kenyon (0-0, 5-2), 7:30pm -- Live Stats, Audio, and Video
Talk about your 'Must See T-V'...

Two non-conference games round out the slate:
Washington & Jefferson (5-1) at OWU (4-1) 6pm -- Live Stats and Video -- Game 1 of a women/men doubleheader (men face Capital)
Hiram (0-4) at Grove City (2-4) 7:30pm -- Live Stats

[David Collinge]

A campus-wide power outage at Kenyon, caused by high winds, has forced the postponement of tonight's KC/DU game until tomorrow at 7:30pm.  Link

Washington & Jefferson 65, Ohio Wesleyan 54...Probably the best team on OWU's schedule, the Presidents took the Bishops completely out of their offense, forcing OWU to rely on defended threes and dribble drives.  Unfortunately, the hosts could get neither to work, shooting just 12.5% from "international waters" (tip o' the cap to OWU announcers Ryan and Matt Yoder for this one) and 32% overall.  At the other end, W&J continually found holes in the Bishop defense, shooting 43% and coasting to the relatively easy road victory.

Grove City 60, Hiram 36...Hiram made 15 baskets, but turned the ball over 25 times, and that's a recipe for disaster.  The Wolverines shot the ball more accurately (41% to 31%) and much more frequently (64 to 49 attempts) en route to a comfortable home victory.  Brittany Mayle led the Terrier attack with a paltry 8 points.

[David Collinge]

Denison 63, Kenyon 61...
I'm watching the Denny/Kenny game (led by Kenny, 26-25 at the half), and am struck by how little these teams resemble their immediate predecessors.  Two seasons ago, this game was like an All-Star game, with NCAC superstars like Alisha Moreno, Ellen O'Brien, Carolyn Simpson, and Anne Dugan crowding the floor.  It was truly "the beautiful game."  Nowadays things have changed.  There's still two superstars (Shaina Kaiser--who took the game over in the last four minutes of the half, leading Denison on a 12-1 run--and Morgan Korinek are two of the conference's best players), but mostly I'm watching a couple of deep, well-coached, but not very athletic teams slug it out.  Already there's been 20 turnovers and more bricked shots than in a season's worth of DU/KC games earlier in the decade.  It's not that these teams aren't good--they are (NCAC-good, anyway), and as long as Sara Lee and Carolyn Helfant are around, that's going to be the case.  But these teams are good because they work so hard at being good, not because basketball comes naturally to them.

Kenyon's once and future point guard Taylor Lenci is still hobbling around in street clothes and crutches.

Denison gritted their way back from 12-point first half and 10-point second half deficits to grab the crucial road win, 63-61.  The Big Red did most of the work at the free throw line, connecting on 15 of 18 chances (14/15 in the 2nd period) and outscoring the Ladies by eight via this method.  Trailing virtually the entire game, Denison grabbed the lead with 2:21 left and extended it to five points with 1:26 remaining.  Kenyon managed to cut the lead back to two, and had the ball with 0:11 left, but a botched inbounds pass spelled doom for the Ladies.  The aforementioned Kaiser and Korinek led their teams with 23 and 21 points, respectively.  Denison's 6th straight victory brings them to 2-0 in NCAC play and 6-1 overall, while Kenyon drops to 0-1/5-3 with their third consecutive defeat.

[David Collinge]

Tonight's Allegheny at Fredonia St. game has been postponed due to snow.  The game will be made up Sunday at 2pm.

A reasonably light weekend schedule:
Friday:
Ursuline (3-8) at Oberlin (1-6), ~8pm -- Live Stats, Audio, Video -- Believe it or not, this is Oberlin's home opener.  The tip is set for 30 minutes after the Yeomen's game vs. Alma (6pm) is complete

Saturday -- featuring three conference games:
Kenyon (0-1, 5-3) at Hiram (0-1, 0-5), 1pm -- Live Stats, Audio, Video
Earlham (0-1, 1-4) at Ohio Wesleyan (1-0, 4-2), 2pm -- Live Stats and Video
Wittenberg (1-0, 2-3) at Oberlin (1-0, 1-6), 2pm -- Live Stats, Audio, Video -- note the quick turnaround time for the Yeowomen...
Ursuline (3-8) at Wooster (1-5), 3pm -- Live Stats -- ...as well as for the Arrows, who have two bus rides that Oberlin hasn't got

Sunday:
Allegheny (4-4) at Fredonia St. (3-2), 2pm -- no live coverage?

[David Collinge]

Ursuline 65, Oberlin 55...Both Syrea Thomas (5/18) and Allison Anderson (4/16) were ice cold, and that's a situation that Oberlin can't survive.  The rest of the team did their part, hitting 38% on 13/34 shooting , but it wasn't enough to offset the problems from the key offensive players.  Oberlin led 35-25 with 1:49 left in the first half, but made only one basket in the next 11 minutes as the Arrows roared back to take a 48-38 lead.  An 8-1 mini-run brought the Yeo back to within three, but then the OC guns went silent again, this time for a game-deciding seven-plus minutes which saw Ursuline open up a 63-49 lead with 1:18 left.  On the bright side, Anderson recorded another double-double, with 11 points and 10 assists; in true Wayne Gretzky fashion, she either scored or assisted on 14 of Oberlin's 22 baskets.  Fellow first-year Kelly Warlich led the way with 18 points on 7/16 shooting (4/12 from the arc) and 8 boards, whle Thomas added 14 points and 8 rebounds.

[David Collinge]

Kenyon 67, Hiram 53...Kenyon survives a huge scare from the winless Terriers to record their first conference win.  The Ladies were firmly in control of this one for the first three quarters, building a 19-point lead with 11:08 remaining, at which point the homestanding Terriers came to life.  Over the next eight minutes Hiram ripped off a 16-1 run to make this a contest.  Unfortunately for the Pup faithful, the comeback ran out of steam, as Kenyon scored 14 of the game's final 18 points to secure the victory.  Morgan Korinek recorded a double-double (17 pts., 10 boards) to lead the Ladies, while Hiram's typically balanced attack was topped by Caitlyn Ruese's 11 points.

Wittenberg 76, Oberlin 57...These teams played more or less toe-to-toe for the first half, with Wittenberg clinging to a five-point lead with 0:56 left in the period.  By the time Oberlin connected again from the field, nearly six minutes had elapsed and the Tigers had roared out to a 20-point lead that they'd generally maintain over the final 15 minutes.  Witt shot 44% from the field and held a +16 rebound advantage while holding Oberlin's first-year phenom Allison Anderson scoreless.  Stephanie Boardman notched an impressive double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds, more than counteracting Syrea Thomas' own double-double (19 & 10).  

OWU 79, Earlham 71 (OT)...This one was a struggle from the get-go, but the Bishops slowly wore down their guests, opening their largest lead (11 points) with 3:31 remaning.  However, at that point the EC switched to a smaller lineup and scored the last 11 points in regulation to force the unlikely OT.  The Bishops, who missed their last six shots of the 2nd period, stayed cold early in the OT, as the Quakers capped a 13-0 run, grabbing their first lead of the game, 69-67, just over a minute into the extra session.  OWU finally shook off the doldrums, though as they connected on their last four shots, including two clutch threes from Kayla Gordon, and closed out the contest on a 12-2 run.  EC first-year Whitney Sparkman had the game of her short career, hitting 13 of 15 shots from the floor for 27 points to lead all scorers.  OWU countered with 20 from sophomore post Dany Finck, augmented by 19 from Gordon and 13 from Tyler Cordell.  Earlham had fits with OWU's pressure defense all afternoon, committing 33 turnovers, but stayed in the game behind to 51% shooting, thanks mostly to Sparkman's parade of bunnies in the paint.  

Wooster 72, Ursuline 66...Kym Wenz; that's all you need to know.  Already sitting on a 30-point afternoon, and with her team trailing by one with about 90 seconds left, the senior All-American drained a three to give her team the lead, then promptly stole the ball and converted a layup to ensure the victory.  To cap things off, she converted a couple free throws, scoring the final seven points of the game single-handedly.  Wenz finished with 37 points, more than half of her team's total, on 12/22 shooting, including six threes in ten tries.  She also recorded seven rebounds and seven steals.  Overall, the Scots shot 40% from the field and 48% from the arc, while forcing 20 Arrow turnovers.

Updated standings:
Denison 2-0 conference, 6-1 overall
OWU 2-0, 5-2
Wittenberg 2-0, 3-3
Kenyon 1-1, 6-3
Allegheny 1-1, 4-4
Oberlin 1-1, 1-8
Wooster 0-2, 2-5
Earlham 0-2, 1-5
Hiram 0-2, 0-6

[David Collinge]

Fredonia St. 68, Allegheny 60...Trailing by 8 at the half, the Gators scored the next 11 points to take the lead.  The game then see-sawed back and forth for most of the rest of the way.  With 1:07 left, Allegheny cut what had been a 7-point Blue Devil lead to 3, then Lauren Donahoe stole the ball and had a chance to make it a one-point game with 0:57 left...but missed the layup.  Their last bullet fired, the Gators didn't score again as Fredonia salted the game away with the game's last five points.  Fredonia overwhelmed 'Gheny on the boards, 59-27, but committed 30 turnovers (to just 13 for the Gators), leading to a surprising advantage in shots attempted (66-61) for the visitors.  However, the Pennsylvanians connected on just 22 of those shots, a shooting percentage that was higher only than the temperature.  Jill Gregory led Allegheny with 17 points.

Updated standings:
Denison 2-0 conference, 6-1 overall
OWU 2-0, 5-2
Wittenberg 2-0, 3-3
Kenyon 1-1, 6-3
Allegheny 1-1, 4-5
Oberlin 1-1, 1-8
Wooster 0-2, 2-5
Earlham 0-2, 1-5
Hiram 0-2, 0-6

Interesting (to me) how reasonable those standings already look, just 2 games into the season.  Compare the men's side, where Denison and Hiram presently share the conference lead with Wooster, and OWU is bringing up the rear (with Kenyon and Oberlin).

[David Collinge]

Another week, and another easy choice for NCAC Player of the Week.  This time, the honor goes to Wooster's All-America senior guard Kym Wenz for her career-best 37-point, seven steal performance against Ursuline on Saturday.  Congratulations, Kym!