Lady Jackets still in 1st place with win over Franklin

DEFIANCE, Ohio—The Defiance College Lady Jackets remain in a first-place tie in the HCAC after overcoming a 31-41 rebounding deficit and a conference record eight three-pointers by Franklin College’s Lindsey Roberson, to down the Grizzlies 76-64 on Saturday afternoon at the Weaner Center.

Meta Gerding nailed five triples of her own to pace the Jackets with 22 points, while Meghann Savard closed with 14 points and five boards. Kelly VanderHorst, who led DC with eight rebounds, and Kara Jones, who had a game-high five steals, each had 12 points to help the Lady Jackets improve to 7-1 in the HCAC and 11-7 overall.

The Jackets found themselves down 27-30 at the half after jumping out to a nine point lead, 12-3, at the 17-minute mark on a Gerding’s second triple of the game. The Grizzlies came back as Roberson nailed three trifectas in the final ten minutes of the opening period.

The Jacket defense tightened and held Roberson to two second-half three-pointers while VanderHorst hit several deciding shots on her way to 10 second-half points, starting with a three-pointer four minutes in to the half to give DC the lead at 38-37.

FC closed the gap to six, 57-51, on another Roberson three-pointer with six-minutes left. And old-fashioned three-point play by Savard and another trey by Gerding eventually gave Defiance a decisive double-digit lead, 66-56 with four and a half minutes left.

Gerding played all but one minute in the Jacket win, while VanderHorst, Jones, and Savard each played a grueling 34 minutes.

The Jackets remain in a first-place tie with Transylvania and will next travel to Manchester to face the Spartans at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday night in North Manchester, Indiana. DC will host Mt. St. Joseph on Saturday at 3:00 p.m.

The Grizzlies have dropped three straight and sit at 14-5 on the season with a 5-3 mark in the conference.