The No. 4 women’s basketball team split a pair of games at the Ohio Wesleyan University Bishop Classic Dec. 29-30 in Delaware, Ohio.
WUSTL fell to second-ranked Hope College, 49-47, in a rematch of the 2010 NCAA Division III national championship game won by the Bears last March by a score of 65-59.
The team trailed Hope by seven points at the half, but used a 10-3 run to start the second half to knot the score at 33-33. No more than two points separated the two teams until Hope pulled ahead by four with less that a minute to play.
The Bears closed within two thanks to an Alex Hoover lay-up, but sophomore Kristin Anda’s baseline jumper with three seconds remaining rimmed out and Hope held on for the two-point win.
WUSTL bounced back with a 71-59 win over Bluffton University in the Bishop Classic consolation game. Anda finished the game with a career-high 14 points, 10 of which came during the second half. Junior Bethany Morrison also reached a new career-high in scoring, with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting, and senior Kathryn Berger led all scorers with 15 points, and was also named to the All-Tournament Team.
WUSTL (9-2) returns to action at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 8, to commence its 2011 University Athletic Association campaign at the University of Chicago.