Lady Jackets Defeat Ohio Valley For Hoffman’s 100th Career Win

by Evan Kakuk

The Lady Jackets continue their streak of dominance to improve to 13-1 versus a winless Ohio Valley University with a final score of 77-49. This also gave head coach Kari Hoffman her 100th career win. This game proved to be very low scoring, as both teams appeared sluggish offensively. While they may have scored below their average this game, Cedarville still remained in control of the game flow, holding their opponents under 50 points.

Sophomore Isabelle Bolender led the scoring for the Jackets for the second straight game with 14. She was one of three players for Cedarville to reach double digits. Joining her was senior Stevie Johnting and junior Lexi Moore, scoring 11 points each. Junior Emily Chapman scored nine points, and freshmen Anne Wheeler and Lydia Sweeney each scored eight points. Senior Ashlyn Huffman led the team in both assists and rebounds with seven and six, respectively. 

Ohio Valley came away with the first score of the game with a 3-pointer, but momentum would shift in Cedarville’s favor from that point forward. OVU managed to keep the game within 12 points at the end of the quarter, with the score being 17-5.

Once the second quarter started, the Jackets never really gave OVU a chance. The closest OVU came was within eight points of the Jackets. But Johnting’s back-to-back 3-pointers killed their momentum. At the end of each following quarter, Cedarville led by at least 20 points, concluding in a 77-49 victory.

While the 77-point total may be below the Jacket’s average, they outscored OVU by 28 points, which is almost 10 points higher than their average scoring margin of 18.5 points. Their shooting average was exactly 40 percent, about six percent lower than average. However, they also kept their turnover total to five, which is 12 less than OVU’s turnover count at 18. The Jackets capitalized on those turnovers with 18 points, while OVU scored six points from turnovers. Cedarville out-rebounded OVU 43-29. However, two categories where OVU led Cedarville was free throw percentage and 3-point percentage. OVU’s free throw percentage was 80 percent compared to Cedarville’s 68.4 percent. Their 3-point percentage was 44 percent compared to Cedarville’s 28.6 percent. However, these differences could not help OVU defeat Cedarville in the end.

Overall, it looked like a rough night for OVU. They only had eight active players during this game, so a lack of bench depth was very apparent. To the Jackets, this was just another game to use to maintain their spot at the top of the G-MAC conference. They will look to continue their streak of dominance at home against Ursuline on January 30th.

Evan Kakuk is a sophomore Professional Writing and Information Design major. He enjoys running, weightlifting, and playing Wii with his friends.