SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The No. 7 seed Kenyon College women’s basketball team traveled to Springfield, Ohio on Tuesday night for the opening round of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament against the No. 2 seed Wittenberg University Tigers.
Despite a solid start on both sides of the ball led by senior center Claudia Cooke, the Owls could not sustain the effort outside of the game’s opening minutes, eventually falling 80-39.
To open the contest, the Owls came out with a spark that was headed up by the team’s leading scorer in her final game for Kenyon (3-23, 1-13 NCAC). Cooke scored four straight points on two turnaround layups and grabbed an offensive rebound on the next possession to find Raine Hammel, who drained a three to put Kenyon ahead 7-0 with six minutes to play in the first.
After the early lead, Wittenberg (19-6, 11-3 NCAC), currently ranked second in offense and fourth in defense in the NCAC, lived up to its conference ranking and rattled off an 11-2 run to put the Tigers ahead for the first time. Later in the quarter, Cooke carved up the defense and drew a…
