Hannah Kiser

WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster played its northeast Ohio nemesis Case Western Reserve University closely on Wednesday evening, as it remained within striking distance throughout the entire contest, but ultimately, the Spartans did enough to secure a 77-65 victory over the Fighting Scots in a women's basketball match-up at Timken Gymnasium.

The Spartans (4-2) have been a thorn in Wooster's (1-4) side in recent years, but the Scots took a step in the right direction tonight, as they won the rebounding battle (43-41), had a season-low in turnovers (10), and were outscored by just three, 33-30, in the second half.

Wooster trailed only by a possession or two for much of the first half, with Aki Shurelds pulling the Scots within one (12-11) with a 3-pointer about eight minutes into the action. Shurelds drained another 3-ball a bit later, which made it a seven-point game (23-16), and then after a defensive stop, Lauren Hancher sunk a lay-up to cut the deficit to five (23-18).

At that point, the Spartans began to pull away a bit, as they extended their cushion to as much as 13 with three minutes remaining in the half. Wooster responded, though, behind an impressive surge from newcomer Hannah Kiser. The local product drained back-to-back 3's, both assisted by Shurelds, and later added a jumper, giving her eight points over just 2:36. That helped the Scots go into the break down nine, 44-35.

Paige Fabry opened the second stanza the same way she started the first, with a bucket in the paint, which brought Case's lead down to seven (44-37). That was as close Wooster got to catching the Spartans, although the Scots made things interesting midway through the half.

Trailing by 14 at 61-47, Wooster went on a 7-2 scoring run, which included four straight points from Katherine Mandych that made it 63-54 with 9:37 to go. Eventually, the Spartans created a bit more separation, with Rachel Collins giving the Scots a late highlight – a 3-pointer near the buzzer – to wrap up the 12-point setback.

Hancher scored a game-high 21 points on a career-high 23 shot attempts, while adding six rebounds, four assists, and three steals. Kiser was next among all scorers with 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting, and chipped in five rebounds, with Collins (8 points) and Shurelds (6 points) rounding out the offensive leaders.

Also noteworthy, Rachel Huxhold passed out five assists, including an impressive one where she corralled an offensive rebound and delivered a one-handed pass to Collins – all while falling out of bounds – which Collins finished off with a 3-pointer. Finally, Sydney Grier, a 5-4 guard, pulled down a career-high nine rebounds, which led all players.

The Spartans were balanced with eight players scoring six or more points, highlighted by 13 from Kara Hageman.

Next up, Wooster visits national powerhouse DePauw University (4-1) in its North Coast Athletic Conference opener on Saturday at 1 p.m.