Lady Jackets Remain Undefeated at Home With Pounding of Trevecca

By Abigail Hintz

The Cedarville Lady Jackets (15-5, 8-3 G-MAC) played a fun game of basketball Thursday evening when they took down the Trevecca Trojans (7-13, 4-7 G-MAC) 77-41, ending their four-game winning streak. The Jackets are now on a four-game win streak; 9-0 at home in the midst of a five-game homestand.

This was the two team’s second meeting, the first of which came in December and also ended in favor of the Jackets, 64-43.

The Jackets were led by senior guard Abby Wolford with 16 points. Sophomore forward Alli Roh followed in total points with 12, only two of which she scored in the entire first half. She also contributed six rebounds. Freshman guard Paige Garr followed close behind with 11 points.

The team shot 28-55 from the field and 8-23 from deep.

Overall, it was a solid defensive effort from the entire team. Head coach Kari Hoffman called it the best defensive performance the team has had all year.

“We’ve said for this last half of the season that that needs to be our identity,” said Hoffman. “I was so proud of our team for just sitting down and getting stop after stop in that second quarter. That was really pretty.”

Stevie Johnting (13) takes a 3-point shot.

Chapman, who missed Saturday’s contest with an injury, opened the scoring with a 3-pointer. The Jackets couldn’t pull away early, lacking in rebounds and shooting just 25 percent from the field going into the first media timeout. The slow start was quickly forgotten when the Jackets went on a ten point run, coming from behind and closing out the quarter 17-9. The Jackets had six players on the board by the end of the quarter.

They didn’t let up coming out of the break, completing their run with 14 points before the Trojans broke it halfway through the quarter, making it 21-11. They proceeded to go on another 7 point run. Trevecca began frustrating the Jackets, playing some tight defense that the Cedarville coaches felt were more fouls than were being called. The scores plateaued towards the end of the half, and the Jackets went into the locker room up 35-15.

The third quarter was fairly complacent until a total team play broke apart the Trojan defense and ended with a 3-pointer by Garr put the Jackets up 49-22 and forced a Trevecca timeout. The pretty offensive plays just kept coming from Cedarville, and they went up 53-24 with three minutes to play in the third quarter. Garr added six points to her total in the third, all coming from 3-pointers.

The Jackets switched up the lineup late in the quarter, but still finished it up with a huge 59-24 margin.

Hoffman said, “I think when we went on our biggest run in the third quarter, a lot of our bench players were in. Paige [Garr] hit some big shots, Allison Mader played really well and Alli Roh played really well.” 

Hoffman continued to play both a young and inexperienced lineup in the fourth quarter. With a nearly 40-point margin it was valid, and the Jackets handled it well, winning the quarter 18-17. The momentum was all in the Jacket’s favor, and the team was clearly having fun as they finished out the game.

“That was just fun basketball right there,” said Roh of the Jackets’ clean offensive plays.

The Jackets stay steadily in fourth place in the G-MAC. Undefeated Walsh remains at the top of the conference despite defeating 2-9 Hillsdale by just one point Thursday night.

The Lady Jackets have a quick turnaround as they play Alderson Broaddus (6-13, 3-7 G-MAC) on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 1 p.m. It is the fourth game in the team’s five-game homestand.

Abigail Hintz is a sophomore journalism major and Digital Editor for Cedars. She loves reading, playing Spikeball with her friends and watching soccer 24/7.