PALATINE, IL-  The Harper College women's basketball team played host to the McHenry County College Scots on Thursday evening.  After a rough start to the game, the Hawks ended up falling to the Scots 83-33.

As has been the story for the beginning of the season, the Hawks offense started off ice cold.  Harper went 0-7 from the field and committed 11 turnovers in the first quarter to go down 26-0 after the first 10 minutes of play.  An efficient McHenry offense was also to blame as they went 12-14 from the field.  Through the first four games this year, the Hawks are being outscored by their opponents 80-20 in the first quarter.  

However, the Harper offense and defense showed its promise by outscoring the Scots 16-8 in the second quarter, while going 5-9 from the field, creating 3 steals, and only committing 3 turnovers.  The Hawks also benefited from 9 Scots' fouls and went 5-7 from the free throw line to cut the deficit to 34-16 at the half.  Monica Brown () led the Hawks in scoring at the half with 8 points.

The third quarter saw more of the same issues from the first quarter, as Harper had 8 more turnovers and committed 7 fouls.  MCC capitalized again by going 12-21 from the floor while also hitting 6 free throws for a 31 point outburst.  Harper only took 9 shots in the quarter, hitting 4 and went 3-5 from the foul line.  Heading into the fourth quarter, the Hawks trailed 66-28.

The Hawks had 9 more turnovers in the fourth quarter, leading to MCC outshooting the Hawks 16-8 in the quarter.  Neither team was efficient from the floor with the two teams combining to hit 7 of 25 shots.  At the final buzzer, the scoreboard showed 83-33 and the Hawks dropped to 0-4 on the season.

An extremely physical McHenry defense forced 31 Harper turnovers leading to a 66-33 difference in total shots.  Monica Brown () led the Hawks in scoring, totaling 14 points on 4-7 shooting including 3-4 from the three-point line.  Kaela Drum (Arlington Heights/Hersey) went 5-5 from the free-throw line to aid her 13 points.  Sydney Heinrich (Hoffman Estates/Fremd) led the team with 5 rebounds while Taylor Gunn (/Rolling Meadows) chipped in 3 steals.  The Hawks shot 30.3% for the game.

Harper's next game will be Sunday as they travel to Northwestern University to take on the Northwestern and Loyola University club teams.  Their next home game will be Tuesday at 5pm when they host the Oakton Owls.