Lady Jackets Open Conference Play with Win

by Tim Miller

The No. 24 Cedarville Lady Jackets (6-1,1-0 G-MAC) won their conference opener against the Trevecca Nazarene Trojans on Thursday night, 75-60. Five players reached double digits in the game for Cedarville.

Junior guard Regina Hochstetler led the Lady Jackets in scoring with 15 points on 6-13 shooting.

The Lady Jackets’ two starting forwards each flirted with double-doubles. Senior forward Emily Williams reached double digits in scoring for the first time this season and had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Senior forward Breanne Watterworth just missed a double-double, providing nine points and 11 rebounds.

Senior guard Kaitlyn Holm added ten points, six rebounds and three assists.

Hochstetler sank a quick 3-pointer just 10 seconds into the game to give Cedarville a 3-0 lead. Both offenses were sluggish after that, and Trevecca didn’t make its first field goal until there was 5:38 left in the quarter. With 4:30 left, the Lady Jackets led just 7-3.

“Early on, we struggled to defend,” head coach Kari Hoffman said. “We quickly figured out how to stop doing that which was a key for us. We sat down and defended and made them take tough shots.”

With 2:49 left, Trevecca converted a triple off a dribble handoff to take its first lead of the game at 9-7. Cedarville answered back with a two to tie the game and a second 3-pointer by Hochstetler to give the Yellow Jackets the lead at 12-9.

The Yellow Jackets led 14-9 at the end of the quarter. Cedarville was charged with six team fouls compared to Trevecca’s three in the first ten minutes. The Lady Jackets were 50 percent from the field, a considerably better mark than the Trojans’ 17 percent.

“Our shots started falling there later in the second quarter,” Hoffman said. “We just started rolling from there.”

Trevecca owned a 10-3 run in the second quarter which propelled the Trojans to a 19-19 tie with Cedarville with 5:32 on the clock. The Trojans took a 22-21 lead with 4:56 left, but the lead didn’t last long as the Lady Jackets exploded to a 20-5 run to close the half.

Freshman guard Stevie Johnting netted a deep 3-pointer from the right wing to give Cedarville its first double digit lead of the game with 1:24 on the clock. The Lady Jackets led 35-24 at that point.

Cedarville took a 41-27 lead into halftime. Hochstetler finished the half with 12 points and Watterworth added four points and four rebounds in the half. Junior guard Baylee Bennett scored six points in the second quarter alone and nailed both of her attempts from behind the arc in the second.

The Lady Jackets scored ten unanswered in the third to go up 53-33 with 4:33 left. Senior forward Taylor Buckley scored the final four points of the run. After Buckley’s shot, Trevecca called a timeout.

The Lady Jackets maintained their 20-point lead after three quarters and took a 59-39 margin into the final period. Holm scored six points in the period and Buckley contributed five points.

Cedarville kept a tight grip on its 20-point lead in the final period and never let the margin drop below 15 points.

Cedarville gets one day off before playing host to 4-2 Kentucky Wesleyan on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Lady Jackets took one of two matchups last season against the G-MAC foe.

Tim Miller is a sophomore marketing major and sports editor for Cedars. He enjoys having a baby face, sipping Dunkin Donuts coffee and striving to be the optimal combination of Dwight Schrute and Ron Swanson.