Saturday’s Senior Day saw the Kenyon Ladies nipped at home as time wound down, while the Lords traveled to Crawfordsville, Ind., and ran into a second-half buzz saw.
In Gambier, the Kenyon College women’s basketball team fell to Hiram College, 72-71, in dramatic fashion. The Ladies fell to 6-19 overall on the season and 4-12 in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC). The win for Hiram boosts its record to 8-16 overall and 4-12 in NCAC play, tying Kenyon in the conference standings.
Ladies senior Bridget Molnar started the Senior Day game with a layup, giving the Ladies an early lead. On the other end of the court, Molnar registered three blocks in two possessions before sinking a free-throw line jumper. As Kenyon looked to extend the lead, the Terriers converted a jumper to stop the 10-0 run. After the end of the first quarter, the Ladies held a slight edge over Hiram, 13-10.
Starting the second quarter, Kenyon went on a 9-2 streak to pull away from the Terriers. Hiram responded with a 10-2 run of its own as it inched closer to the Ladies. Madelyn Anderson stopped the momentum with a three-pointer to give Kenyon some breathing room. The Ladies’ defense stepped up, forcing three consecutive turnovers before cashing in on a Greta Propp three-point shot. A Hiram missed shot before the buzzer gave the Ladies a 35-30 lead going into halftime.
Coming out of the locker rooms, both teams traded buckets over the opening minutes of the third, and at the end of the third quarter, the Terriers and Ladies were deadlocked at 50-50.
The fourth quarter was 42 seconds old when Hiram gained its first lead of the game on an Alex Lichner three-pointer. On the other end of the floor, Propp nailed another three to regain the tie. After Hiram built a lead, Katie Orefice drove the lane for a layup to bring the Ladies within a single possession. With under two minutes to go, Grace Connery cut the Hiram lead in half with another three.
With Kenyon down three points and the clock ticking down, Orefice drove down the lane,once again, making the layup and drawing the foul. On the ensuing free throw, Orefice made the shot but had it called off on a lane violation. A pair of free throws pushed Hiram’s lead to three, but Anderson made another shot from deep to tie the game with 10 seconds left. Following a Terrier timeout that advanced the ball up the court, Haley Thompson drew a foul with 3.8 seconds left on the clock. Thompson missed the first free throw but made the second to put the Terriers up one. The Ladies couldn’t make the half-court shot before the final horn sounded, falling in the final seconds by one point.
Orefice registered a double-double, scoring a team-high 18 points while hauling in 10 rebounds. Propp followed Orefice with her 16 points in the loss.
On the men’s court in Indiana, Kenyon hung tight against the Wabash College Little Giants in the early going of Saturday's game, but in the end, the Lords didn't have enough to get past the top team in the North Coast Athletic Conference, falling 98-75.
Both teams started out on fire, sinking shot after shot. The Lords made their first seven, a superlative performance that kept things neck-and-neck with the No. 20-ranked team in NCAA Division III.
A Drew Valentino turnaround jump shot with 13:07 left in the half pulled the Lords within four at 25-21, but a 14-5 run from Wabash extended the Little Giants' lead to 39-26.
On the strength of buckets from Max Belt and Juan Sergio Matabuena, Kenyon cut back the Wabash lead to single digits, but the Little Giants always seemed to respond, bringing the score to 50-40 at halftime.
Early in the second half, a layup by Valentino pulled Kenyon within four points at 52-48, putting the Little Giants on a serious upset alert. Wabash, however, ran the table from there and moved the lead to as much as 28 points. Valentino ended up topping the Lords' scoring chart with 13 points. He also had three rebounds, three assists and one steal. Gefen Bar-Cohen chipped in 12 points and grabbed a team-high eight boards. Sergio Matabuena tallied 11 points, going 3-for-3 from behind the arc, and Belt finished with 10 points for Kenyon, which wrapped up the 2021-22 season with a 3-22 overall record and a 1-17 conference mark.
