The Spartans have strung together two in a row to jump to 4-2 on the young season.

Right before Thanksgiving, the Spartan women dropped a close game to Kenyon College by a score of 51-47. The Spartans were led by sophomore guard Jessica McCoy, who put up 13 points and helped facilitate the offense with three assists.

The Spartans fell behind early, with their last lead happening at the 13:06 mark of the first half. After that it was all Kenyon—they jumped into the lead with seven unanswered points. The Spartans hit a shot from behind the arc, but this was only momentary relief; Kenyon then strung together a 10-1 run to take a commanding lead.

The Spartans refused to give up and answered with a 10-2 spurt to pull to 24-21 but limped into the half, behind 29-23. Kenyon took commanding leads in the second half, going up by as many as 11. Despite drawing close down the stretch, the Spartans were unable to equalize.

The Spartans returned early from Thanksgiving break to host Wittenberg University. Wittenberg had been undefeated, but the Spartans easily handed them a 66-55 loss.

Case Western Reserve University was led again by McCoy, who converted three shots from downtown and added five rebounds to the stat sheet. Brooke Orcutt posted 12 points and seven rebounds of her own, and junior post Laura Mummey added 10 points and eight grabs off the boards.

The Spartans relied on their defense and were able to hold the Tigers to a scoreless opening six minutes of play and kept them from scoring a field goal for the first seven and a half.
The Case lead increased to 11 in the first half, but Wittenberg battled back with a 12-2 run to keep it close. The Spartans regrouped and rattled off a 10-4 run to head back into the locker room for the half with a 31-24 lead.

The Spartans jumped to a 50-35 lead with 13:05 remaining in the game and didn’t look back. Wittenberg attempted to remain in the game but was unable to reduce the lead to single digits.

On Wednesday, Dec. 3rd, the Spartans headed back out on the road to battle the College of Wooster. Freshman forward Kara Hageman had a career best of 13 points and eight rebounds to lead the Case squad to their second straight win on a 77-65 final.

In addition to Hageman, Mummey was a major factor for the second straight game, as she added 12 points of her own, four rebounds and a pair each of steals and blocks.

The game remained close through the first nine minutes of play until the Spartans put up nine unanswered points to be followed later by a 7-0 run late in the half, and headed into the locker room 44-35. The Spartans had no real pressure in the second half and rolled to their second straight win.

The Spartans return home after the road win to host Denison University on Saturday, Dec. 6 at 1:00 p.m. in Horsburgh Gymnasium before heading out on break, where they return to action right after Christmas, on Dec. 28th and 29th for the Hoops for Hounds Classic Tournament.