On a frozen January afternoon, the Alma College Women's Basketball team welcomed Kalamazoo College to the Art Smith Arena for a conference matchup. The Scots would be unable to shake a slow start at home, eventually falling to the Hornets 52-40.

"I thought we did decent job defensively against a good Kalamazoo team," said Alma Head Coach Kris Johnson. "We got outworked and outhustled tonight and that was a disappointment."

With the loss, Alma drops to 6-7 overall and 1-3 in MIAA games. Kalamazoo improves to 8-4 on the year and 3-1 in league play with the victory.

The shooting in the early minutes proved to be as cold as the temperature outside, as both teams combined to go 0-of-10 from the floor in the first two minutes.

Despite the shaky starts, the Hornets would find themselves up 7-0 with just over 11 minutes remaining in the half.

A layup by Sr. G Mallory Pruett (Ishpeming/Ishpeming) would bring the Scots within eight at 14-6, but the visitors would string together a 15-6 run in the final moments to take the 29-12 lead heading into halftime.

Kalamazoo kept the pressure on to start the second half, stretching the lead to 22 points at 38-16 with just over 15 minutes to play.

The Scots would cut the deficit to 12 points in the final minutes, but the Hornets would hold on for the 52-40 victory at the Art Smith Arena.

Sr. G Morgan Henry (Wayland/Wayland Union) led Alma with 15 points and Sr. G Grace Wheeler (St. Ignace/LaSalle) grabbed a team-high nine boards, while adding six points. So. G Tara Padgett (Freeland/Freeland) came off the bench to score four points and grab four rebounds in the loss.

The Scots shot 14-of-58 (24.1%) from the field and 3-of-15 (20.0%) from beyond the arc. Alma was outrebounded by the Hornets 51-39 and the Scots committed 21 turnovers compared to 20 by Kalamazoo.

Alma continues conference play on Wednesday, Jan.7, traveling to take on the Comets of Olivet College at 8:00 p.m.