Women’s basketball falls short against Franklin

DEFIANCE, Ohio - The Defiance College women's basketball team was defeated by the Franklin College Grizzlies 69-62 in a tense contest on Saturday evening at the Karl H. Weaner Community Center.

The first quarter saw the Yellow Jackets and Grizzlies trade the lead back-and-forth and when the dust settled after the first 10 minutes of play the teams were tied at 16-16. Sophomores Nicole Sims and Taylor Steinbrunner did the bulk of the scoring for Defiance, each chipping in five points with the latter's coming off the bench.

The exchange of points continued into the second quarter with neither team able to pull away. Sims added an additional four points and sophomore Lexie Sparks posted five points in the quarter as the Yellow Jackets entered halftime tied with the Grizzlies 29-29.

The visitors opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run and remained ahead for the rest of the quarter, shooting 63.6 percent (7-11) from the floor despite the Yellow Jackets forcing five turnovers in the period. Despite a late comeback effort in the fourth quarter, the Yellow Jackets suffered their fourth loss of the season, falling to the Grizzlies 69-62.

Sophomore Briana Townley was the leading scorer for the Yellow Jackets, posting 17 points and 10 rebounds for her third career double-double.

"Briana had a fantastic game, and that is exactly the kid that I thought we would get when we recruited her," remarked Defiance head Coach Alan King Jr. "She knocked down threes with the ability to go off the bounce and post up. The thing that I love about Bri is that she is a great rebounder and she proved that with 10 defensive rebounds tonight. We knew that in order to compete we needed to be in the rebounding game and she answered that call."

Townley accounted for nearly half of the team's 21 defensive rebounds and nearly a third of the team's 33 total rebounds. Freshman Cait Good finished second on the team with four total boards.

"I thought Cait was excellent off the bench tonight. The stats only show four rebounds but she created a bunch of them. She was tough and I thought in the first half she set a tone for us off the bench that she was going to be tough, she was going to be physical and she was going to make them guard her and go after her." King said on the defensive toughness of the young freshman. "She did a nice job knocking down one shot and we are going to find a way to get her more shot opportunities as the season goes on and she gets more comfortable."

Sims also reached double figures for the Yellow Jackets, scoring 13 points while dishing out a game-high five assists and grabbing three rebounds. Her 13 points are a new career-high.

"Nicole Sims was big again in the game tonight, setting the pace and just being a tough all-around player to beat. She was big on the boards for us, it only shows three rebounds but she kept a lot of those chances alive for us on the offensive end and created some on the defensive end" said King.

With the loss, Defiance drops to 0-4 on the season while the Grizzlies improve to 3-0. The Yellow Jackets will return to action on Friday, January 29 when they host Anderson University at 7 p.m.