The Grinnell College women's basketball team hung with nationally-ranked Carroll College for a good portion of the first half, but in the end the visitors pulled away for an 80-64 Midwest Conference victory Saturday afternoon at Darby Gymnasium.

Carroll, ranked 21st in the WBCA USA Today/ESPN Top 25 ratings and 25th by D3Hoops.com, stayed perfect on the season at 6-0 overall while moving to 2-0 in the MWC. Grinnell fell to 0-5 overall and 0-2 in the league.

The hosts got a strong performance from Hannah Wolf '08, who tallied a game-high 26 points while also collecting seven rebounds and three steals. Jodi Watkins '09 scored nine points, Kate Norton '11 had six rebounds and Brianna Gallo '11 dished out four assists. Carroll's Kim Wickert turned in a double-double with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Grinnell did hold D3Hoops.com Preseason First-Team All-American Crystal Hoewisch to 15 points.

Grinnell never led in the game, but trailed just 26-22 with 9:35 left in the first half following a layup by Mallory Scharf '09. Carroll answered with a 7-0 run to build its lead to 11, only to see Grinnell come within five at 33-28 after a layups by Norton and Jessica Vaverka '11 and a jumper by Gallo. However, Carroll took off again and led 41-29 by halftime.

The winners all but put the game away at the start of the second half when they opened the stanza with an 11-4 run. The lead was never in single digits again.

Grinnell travels to Monmouth College on Wednesday before finishing out the 2007 portion of its slate on Dec. 8 when Central College visits.
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