Oberlin, Ohio – The Oberlin College women's basketball team used a big first quarter en route to knocking off the Kenyon College Ladies, 52-41, on Wednesday night at Philips Gym.
 
Sophomore Alex Stipano led a trio of Yeowomen in double figures as she finished with a game-high 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting. In the paint, classmate Olivia Canning was an efficient 5-of-6 from the floor as she netted 11 points, while fellow post player Abby Andrews added 10 points on a 4-of-7 showing.
 
The win was the second straight for Oberlin and it marked their sixth victory in the last seven games as they moved to 10-12 overall and 7-6 in the NCAC. Kenyon leaves town at 16-6 and 9-3 in league action.
 
The Ladies missed their first 11 shots of the game as the Yeowomen opened up a 14-0 advantage with 4:28 left in the opening quarter. Stipano started the game with a deep 3-pointer to jump start the 16-point frame for Oberlin as they led 16-2 after 10 minutes of action.
 
The Ladies would settle in and chip away at the deficit, cutting the Oberlin cushion down to 10, but they still had no answer for the hot-shooting Stipano as she finished with four first-half threes to help stake the Yeowomen to a 24-14 lead at the intermission.
 
It was a battle of attrition in the second half as just one point separated the two foes over the final 20 minutes of action with Oberlin scoring 28 compared to Kenyon's 27.
 
Oberlin led by as many as 13 in the third quarter, but the Ladies fought back to within six and ultimately trailed just 34-27 at the end of the frame to setup an exciting fourth quarter.
 
An old-fashioned 3-point from Miranda Diesz capped a 14-7 Kenyon run to cut the Oberlin cushion down to just two at 43-41 with 3:19 left to play. However, the Yeowomen defense would buckle down from there and keep the Ladies scoreless the rest of the way as they pulled away to secure the win.
 
After a hot start in the first quarter, Oberlin finished 19-of-47 from the field for a 40.4 percent success rate. The Ladies were unable to find their rhythm for much of the evening, finishing at just 26.7 percent on 16-of-60 shooting.
 
The Yeowomen will play their final road game of the regular season when they travel to Wittenberg on Saturday afternoon for a 4 p.m. clash.