GRANVILLE, Ohio (February 1, 2023) – The Denison University women's basketball team took a two-point lead into the fourth quarter but was outscored 18-13 in the final 10 minutes as the Big Red suffered a 62-59 loss at home against Hiram College on Wednesday evening.

Just like the first matchup last month between the two teams, this one was not decided until late in the fourth quarter and saw the team trailing entering the final 10 minutes come back to take the victory on the other team's home court.

Denison looked poised to pull it out as the Big Red took a narrow 46-44 lead going into the fourth quarter and got a 3-pointer from Gabby Elliott, her third three of the game to that point, two minutes into the period to expand the lead to five points.

Elliott then hit another 3-pointer a minute and a half later to make it 54-48 Big Red on the seventh assist of the game by Hannah Wynn.

Hiram, however, came back to tie it at 56-56 with only two minutes remaining, and then took its first lead of the game on a layup to cap an 8-0 run with under a minute and a half to go.

Then after a traveling violation on the Terriers with only 42.5 seconds left, the Big Red were unable to do anything with the opportunity and had to put up a desperation attempt from the paint with the shot clock winding down.

That sent the Terriers to the free throw line, where they sank both shots to make it a two-score game with only 17 seconds left.

Elliott connected on her fifth 3-pointer in the final 10 seconds to try and extend the game, but two more free throws for Hiram led to a half-court heave for the Big Red that banged off the backboard, and that was all she wrote.

Denison finished only 5-for-22 (22.7 percent) from the field and 3-for-12 from three in the fourth quarter, and after a layup by Mikaila Carpenter made it a 56-50 Big Red lead with five minutes remaining, Denison went scoreless until the final 10 seconds.

Elliott finished with a game-high 17 points on 5-for-10 shooting from three while Carpenter finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds and Abigail Westmeyer added 12 points. In addition, Wynn stuffed the stat sheet with four points, seven assists, five rebounds, four steals and three blocks.

To start the game, the Big Red defense kept Hiram off the scoreboard for the first five minutes and limited the Terriers to only a pair of field goals while building up a 14-5 lead after the opening 10 minutes.

Denison shot 50 percent from the field (6-for-12) in the first quarter and was the beneficiary of 3-pointers by Elliott and Molly Fisher.

In the second quarter, however, the Big Red got off to a slow start from the field (1-for-6) while Hiram scored nine straight points to cut its deficit to only two (16-14) less than four minutes into the period. It had been an 11-point Denison lead early in the quarter after a layup by Westmeyer on the first possession made it 16-5.

The run for the Terriers grew to 13-2 after the visiting team tied it up at 18-18 halfway through the second quarter, but Denison responded with six straight points on a pair of free throws by Carpenter, a nice turn-around jumper from the top of the key by Westmeyer, and a steal and a layup by Maddie Goodman.

After scoring only five points in the first quarter, the Terriers put up 24 points in the second quarter and stayed within six of the Big Red until making their move in the final few minutes of the game.

With the tough loss, Denison fell to 8-12 overall and 3-6 in the North Coast Athletic Conference while Hiram improved its record to 8-11 and 2-6.

Next up, Denison will wrap up its current three-game homestand against Wittenberg University on Saturday, February 4, for Senior Day at 2 p.m.