Henry Schneiderman
Sports Editor
The Fighting Scots women’s basketball team hosted the Oberlin College Yeowomen in their first North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) match of the year on Wednesday, Dec. 4. Coming off the heels of defeat against the undefeated Capital University Comets, the Scots hoped to bounce back by taming the Yeowomen.
In a season characterized by an almost even record and a plethora of tough games, Wooster’s players went into the Oberlin matchup thirsty for victory.
“It felt really good to play in this first in-conference game, especially since we don’t fully start conference play until January,” guard Mackenzie Riccitelli ’28 said. “Getting one under our belt gives us that experience and now we will be more prepared for the other conference games.” A win on Wednesday would have given the team their first even record of the season.
Wooster came out strong in the first quarter to take an early lead at 9-4, with Ellery Kloek ’28 scoring the team’s first 4 points. The Scots continued this lead throughout the remainder of the first: 11-10. “It felt great to play in the first in-conference game of the season,” Kloek said. “We as a team have been working extremely hard behind the scenes and it is always good to have an opportunity to play and showcase what we have been working toward.”
The second quarter played out much the same, as the narrow game’s scoreline found itself tied 28-28 at the half. Wooster’s defense was critical to their first half success — the team limited Oberlin to a 32% (11-34) field goal percentage from the floor and only 20% (2-10) from beyond the 3-point line. Ace Sturdivant ’27 reflected on the team’s defensive efforts, “We started the game really strong defensively. Coach emphasizes communication, togetherness, and effort on both sides of the ball, especially at the defensive end. We as a team are continually working towards being better and taking something away from every game.”
Despite their first-half performance, the Yeowomen soared past Wooster in the 3rd period of play. Oberlin embarked on a 15-point scoring run to take the quarter, 19-8. Unwilling to kneel, the Scots sliced Oberlin’s lead down to 5 with 4:50 on the clock. This effort was achieved through a 9-0 scoring run from Wooster — with 2-pointers from Erica Beaty ’26, Lynx Lander ’28 and Sturdivant — before being capped off with a Kloek 3-pointer. Undeterred, Oberlin regrouped before going on a 9-0 scoring run of their own to put the game to rest with a final score of 64-52 in the visiting team’s favor.
“The team will get back to work in the Scot Center and learn from this game and every game,” Lander said. “We are an incredibly young team with talent and different skill sets, so we just need to gel as a team.” Beaty added that the team works on “playing solid defense.” “We are pleased with only allowing 64 points, but there are lots of things we can still do better defensively like not allowing as many second chance points,” she said.
Despite this loss, the game featured a number of highlight performances from the Scots. Kloek drained a career-high 13 points, sinking 3 of her 4 efforts from beyond the arc. High scoring efforts extended across the team, as Ella Dean ’26 also connected on 3 nearly consecutive 3-pointers to deliver an 11-point showing. Riccitelli found double digits as well, landing 10 points and 5 rebounds on the night, which was closely followed by Sturdivant, who put forth a well rounded effort of 8 points, 8 assists and 3 rebounds.
With this result, the Fighting Scots fell to 2-4 overall and 0-1 in the NCAC. The team highlighted the importance of learning from defeat. “Our team will use the result from this game to continue focusing on the little things like playing together, having good communication, and giving full effort,” Riccitelli said. “We can’t let this game affect us for a while. We have to learn from it and continue to improve.”
This sentiment was echoed by Beaty who stated, “We have a quick turnaround for our next game, so the team is going to shift our efforts to preparing for the next game and learning from the errors made in the Oberlin game. We need to use the unwanted result from this game to fuel us for the next one.”
Lander concluded, “The coaches here are giving us girls exceptional instruction, quality practices and great game plans now we must ‘believe’ — players [must] believe in players; players believe in coaches and coaches believe in players,” Lander said. “Remember, attitude and effort are the only two things you can control so just go out and play with passion. Wooster Women’s Basketball is coming — look out!”
The Fighting Scots will return to action at home against Carnegie Mellon tonight, Dec. 6. at 6:30 p.m. Go Scots!
