Wooster Drops Home Opener To Earlham 69-60

WOOSTER, Ohio — Plagued by cold shooting, The College of Wooster women's basketball team dropped its third decision in a row Saturday afternoon, losing to Earlham 69-60 in its home opener at Timken Gymnasium.

With the loss, the Scots fell to 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the North Coast Athletic Conference, while Earlham improved to 2-3 overall and 1-1 in the NCAC.

The Scots had a poor shooting game all-around, hitting only 28 percent (21-of-74) of their field-goal attempts and 50 percent (15-of-30) of their foul shots. That overshadowed the fact that Wooster's pressure defense forced an astounding 38 turnovers in just 40 minutes of action.

The game was close throughtout. The Scots led for much of the first half, but a late flurry by Earlham tied the game at 30-30 at halftime.

In the second half, the Quakers scored the first two points and held a lead as large as five points on four different occasions until a 7-1 run by Wooster gave the Scots a 45-44 lead with 10 minutes to play. The lead changed hands four times before a layup by Lindsey Chapp with 4:03 left gave Earlham the lead for good (60-58). In fact, Wooster scored only two points over the final five minutes of the game.

Junior Kerri Horst (West Salem, Ohio / Northwestern) was one of the few bright spots for Wooster, as she finished with 17 points, six assists, and three rebounds before fouling out with a minute to play. Sophomore Kristen Rice (Wooster, Ohio / Northwestern) added nine points while Morgan Ramsdell and Nara DeJesus had eight apiece. DeJesus pulled down 15 rebounds for the Scots, who were outrebounded 58-48 for the game.

Earlham was led by Shelly Holt and Lindsey Chappell who had 20 points each. Chappell added a game high 19 rebound.