APPLETON, Wis. — The Grinnell College women’s basketball team held off a late run by Lawrence University and posted a 62-48 Midwest Conference victory on Saturday at Alexander Gymnasium.
Alissa Hirsh led Grinnell (2-12, 1-8 MWC) and all scorers with 20 points. Abby Jaeger added 15 points for the Pioneers and Anne Boldt had 11. Both Jaeger and Boldt had a team-high nine rebounds.
Alex Deshler posted a double-double for Lawrence (3-10, 1-7) with 14 points and a game-high 14 rebounds.
Lawrence trailed 31-42 with 8:40 remaining, but the Vikings edged closer over the next few minutes. Andrea Wilkinson had a putback layup, and Courtney Schmidt followed with a pair of free throws to trim Grinnell’s lead to 42-35.
After a Grinnell turnover, Katie Schumacher’s layup off a pass from Patsy Kealey cut the margin to 42-37 with 5:43 left. That’s as close as the Vikings would get as Hirsh took the game over the next minute.
Hirsh hit a jumper and then got a three-point play after a Lawrence turnover to push the lead back to 47-37 with 4:45 left. The Vikings got as close as eight points twice, the last time on Deshler’s reverse layup with 1:25 left, but could get no closer.
Lawrence lost despite a dominating performance on the boards with a 54-39 edge and taking 10 more shots from the floor. The Vikings shot just 23.9 percent from the floor and hit on only 1-of-14 shots from beyond the arc.