Cedarville Lady Jackets Rolling With Fourth Consecutive Win

by Abigail Hintz

Cedarville added a fourth win to their streak with a 87-58 win over Malone University. It was their second back-to-back win over the Pioneers as the Jackets defeated them on Saturday 87-78. Cedarville is currently ranked third in the G-MAC, while Malone is seventh.

Head coach Kari Hoffman got every player on the team playing time and it was a well-rounded victory. Junior Emily Chapman was undeniably the leader, however, with a career-high 24 points off the bench. Junior Allison Mader and freshman Anne Wheeler were the only other Cedarville players in double digits with ten and eleven respectively. Senior Ashlyn Huffman led in rebounds with six. As a whole the team shot 54.8 percent and 42.9 percent from deep.

Despite coming off of a big win over the same team, Cedarville came in a little unsettled, unable to take the lead at all in the first quarter. Malone handled them fairly easily going up 23-16 in the first ten minutes. The Lady Jackets played solid defense, committing only two fouls in the first quarter. However, their offense just couldn’t get moving. Coming off the bench, Chapman led the way early with five points in the first quarter.

The second quarter began without much done on Cedarville’s end to clean things up. The two teams went to each other’s ends quickly, each doing a lot of shooting but not a lot of draining. Chapman continued her dominating performance, adding four points early in the second quarter taking her total to nine.

Hoffman put in some fresh legs and the offense began to turn a corner with about five minutes left in the half. Bolender’s third basket of the game gave Cedarville their first lead of the game with five minutes left in the half after the Jackets went on a 7-0 run. The run ended 14-0. Scoring dried up at the end of the half and Cedarville went into the locker room up 38-30. 

By the end of the first half Chapman had already hit her season average with 11 points. Behind her was freshman Anne Wheeler with eight. Huffman led her team in rebounds with five.

Whatever Hoffman said to her team in the locker room paid off on the court as Cedarville pulled away to a 16-point lead early. Malone seemed to have lost their groove while the Jackets found theirs.

The situation was similar on Saturday between the two teams and Malone made a dangerous late run to nearly close the gap. Cedarville was showing no signs of letting that happen again heading into the fourth quarter as they were up 68-46.

The fourth quarter was all Cedarville. Malone could not make much of their chances. Hoffman was able to get her last players off the bench and get some playing time. The team easily handled the Pioneers and finished it out 87-58.

Cedarville now finishes up this stretch of games with their biggest test of the season so far on Saturday. They will take the trip to Walsh University who currently sit at first in the G-MAC with a 3-0 record. The Lady Jackets tip off at 1 p.m. 

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