KWC women top Ohio Dominican, 71-52 | Sports
Kentucky Wesleyan College got the lead in the third quarter and extended it through the final period of a 71-52 women’s basketball win over Ohio Dominican on Saturday at the Sportscenter.
Tahlia Walton was one rebound shy of a double-double, hitting for 22 points and grabbing nine rebounds in 29 minutes. Walton made 7-of-10 shots from the floor, 3-of-4 on 3-pointers and 5-of-8 free throws.
“Our offense was pretty fluid, we played so well together, I felt like it was team basketball today,” Walton said. “You could pass it to anyone and someone would make an open cut.”
KWC opened things up in the third quarter, getting 3-pointers from Shiya Hoosier and Rachel Richardson, along with a layup from Jordyn Barga off a turnover that put the Panthers up 44-34.
KWC shot 61.5% in the third period (8-of-13). The Panthers made 27-of-50 from the floor for 54% in the game. They were 7-of-19 from 3-point range for 36.8%.
“In the beginning of the season, we definitely struggled with hitting out shots, for sure,” Walton said. “We gritted it out, we kept giving ourselves confidence, we needed to keep taking open shots.”
Cali Nolot scored 13 points and Barga added 11 for the Panthers.
KWC went to 8-4 on the season, 5-1 in the G-MAC. Ohio Dominican is 1-10, 1-4 in the G-MAC.
Defense was important throughout the game for KWC.
“We need to make sure we were getting stops,” said Nicole Nieman, KWC’s co-head coach. “We’re really into trying to get three stops in a row, we call it a punch. We’re trying for eight every game, we only got six in this game. The defensive end is where we can bring it every day.
“It’s hard when you’ve taken a 14-day break, just trying to get us back to connected. In the second half, I felt like we gave up some 50-50 balls and some different situations where we need to complete the play. We need to tie those up.”
OHIO DOMINICAN14 18 10 10 — 52
Ohio Dominican (52) — Williams 18, Mullett 17, Schlabach 6, Pickerill 5, Stare 4, Sauerland 2.
Kentucky Wesleyan (71) — Walton 22, Nolot 13, Barga 11, Richardson 7, Hoosier 6, Conley 4, Hammelman 3, McDonald 3, Johnson 2.
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