KALAMAZOO, MI – The Kalamazoo College women's basketball team lost 65-52 to No. 11 Hope College on Wednesday night. The loss was Kalamazoo's first since Jan. 21. The team is now 14-8 overall and 9-5 in conference play.
The Flying Dutch got out to a big lead to start the game and led 17-4 after just four minutes of play. The Hornets didn't back down and quickly answered with a 24-7 run over the next ten minutes to take a 28-24 lead. Hope finished the half on a 13-0 run to leave the Hornets trailing 37-28 at the break.
In the second half Kalamazoo was able to keep Hope's lead around a dozen for the majority of the time, and it even cut the lead to single digits on more than one occasion but could never quite catch up. Every time Kalamazoo would go on a run to get the deficit down to single digits Hope would answer with a small run of its own. Hope went up by as much as 22 with less than ten minutes remaining. The Hornets even fought back from that and brought the Dutch's lead back down to 12 but there just wasn't enough time left on the clock for a full-fledged comeback.
Kalamazoo struggled from the field to the tune of 30 percent shooting. Hope had a massive size advantage, but Perri Nicholson still had a strong game with nine points, 11 rebounds, and five steals. Emily Lindsay and Grace Smith combined for 21 points and both shot pretty well from the field. Claire Slaughter and Querubin Dubois were extremely dynamic off the bench for the Hornets as they helped in numerous areas. Slaughter couldn't be contained on the offensive glass and had five offensive rebounds, six rebounds total, and eight points. Dubois had seven points, six boards, and two assists. She also created havoc on defense every time she stepped onto the court.
The Hornets take on Albion Saturday, Feb. 14 at home.