On the Saturday afternoon, the Alma College Women's Basketball lost to #16 Hope College, 73-56, at Art Smith Arena. With the loss, the Scots now have a mark of 6-17 overall and 4-10 in the league, while the Flying Dutch stand at 20-3 on the season and 11-2 in the MIAA.

"Today was nice to see the continued growth of our team," said Scots Head Coach Keisha Brown. "We came out strong and confident. We had some key points and some big rebounds early. But, the stat that hurt us was 25 turnovers, which is hard to overcome. But overall, I am pleased with the way competed today and how we never backed down."

The Scots jumped out early and used high energy to take an 11-5 lead at the 16:36 mark of the first half. Hope took their first lead at 12-11 with 14:31 remaining, but the Scots were a determined bunch, taking another six point lead, 25-19, when Sr. G Rachel Jaksa (Mt. Pleasant, Mich./Sacred Heart) hit a three-pointer at 9:17.

However, the Flying Dutch got their legs under them after that and outscored Alma by a margin of 24-9 to take a 43-34 lead into halftime. For the half, the Scots shot 50% (13 of 26), including five of six from beyond the arc and outrebounded the visitors 16-12.

Twice the Scots cut the deficit to six points in the second half but the talented Flying Dutch were able to keep the home team at bay, leading by 15, 56-41 at the midway point of the half. The lead for Hope got as high as 23 before it settled into the final margin of 17 at 73-56.

Fr. G Mallory Pruett (Ishpeming, Mich./Ishpeming) led all Alma scorers with 17, whileJr. G Danielle Hicks (Marshall, Mich./Marshall) and Jaksa had 12 and 10 points respectively. Hicks led the team with 14 rebounds as Alma outrebounded Hope by a 39-34 margin for the game.

Alma travels to Olivet on Wednesday for a 6:00 p.m. game before closing out the season at home next Saturday against Trine. The game against the Thunder will be Senior Day and the annual Pink Day for Breast Cancer awareness.