Lady Jackets Top UIndy In Another Comeback Victory

by Abigail Hintz

Cedarville women’s basketball rode four double-digit performances to a 75-64 comeback victory over a winless University of Indianapolis Greyhounds. It was a tale of two halves for the Jackets who came out sluggish and lacking energy before picking it up at halftime and winning the second half 46-26.

The Lady Jackets are now 3-1 on the season as they head into conference play after Thanksgiving break.

Head coach Jason Smith acknowledged the slow start but is seeing a pattern with how the Jackets come out of the locker room from halftime.

“Great victory to go into Thanksgiving break,” he said. “We’ll get a little bit of rest and get ready for conference play.”

“Coming out in the first half, I don’t know that we were completely focused,” said senior Lexi Moore. “Kind of recollected at halftime, coach made a couple of adjustments and ultimately it came down to focus and effort.”

Moore had a huge performance with 16 points, nine rebounds and four steals. Junior Isabelle Bolender dropped 23 points and five rebounds. Senior Emily Chapman had 14 points, all in the second half, and junior Paige Garr added 11.

Both teams came out consistent and stayed locked in with each other for most of the first quarter. Bolender got on the board early, a welcome sign for the Jackets as she didn’t knock anything down until the fourth quarter in their last game on Wednesday.

The Jackets were running a different system with new faces in the lineup compared to Wednesday as well, with Anne Wheeler and Makenna Fee still out with injury. The first quarter saw three lead changes and the Jackets were down 17-15 at the end of the first.

Cedarville came into the second quarter slow on offense and not crashing the boards. The Greyhounds sank three triples in the first half of the quarter and were outworking the Cedarville defense. The Jackets were making more and more unforced errors and the Greyhounds were consistently capitalizing on them.

Bolender had 14 points by the end of the half and Moore had eight. Cedarville was only shooting 39.4 percent from the field and 20 percent from deep, compared to Indianapolis’ 50 and 44.4 percent shooting, respectively.

Cedarville started the third quarter with a 10-point run carried by Chapman with her first eight points of the game. Moore put down the layup to put the Jackets level at 44 with five minutes to play in the third quarter.

The Jackets were finally knocking things down on offense and were able to stay level or up for the majority of the third quarter, winning it 29-14. They shot 78.6 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from behind the arc, while the Greyhounds didn’t make anything from deep. Chapman continued to dominate, ending the quarter with 16 points.

The Jackets just ran it up in the fourth quarter, up by ten with five minutes to play at 68-58. They were completely in control of the game, a stark contrast to the first quarter. They won the quarter 17-12 to finish the win.

Cedarville will enjoy a 12-day break before heading out on the road for the first time to take on Tiffin University on Dec. 2 at 5:30 p.m. in their G-MAC opener. They will be back in Callan on Dec. 4 to take on No. 8 Ashland University.

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