Women's Basketball drops season home opener to Ohio Wesleyan

DEFIANCE, Ohio - The Defiance College women's basketball dropped their season opener and home opener Wednesday night to the preseason North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) favorite Ohio Wesleyan by a score of 101-44.

Ohio Wesleyan is now 1-0 and the Yellow Jackets fall to 0-1. 

Lauren Denison started the scoring for Ohio Wesleyan with a three-pointer 15 seconds into the game. Zadria King knocked down a free throw for Defiance's first points of the season to make the score 3-1. Following the free throw, the Battling Bishops rattled off 17 straight points to take  a 19-point lead. A free throw by Kaitlin Paul finally halted the run and King scored the first field goal of the game with 1:15 left in the first quarter. 

Two free throws by Kaiya Albert made the score 26-8 three minutes into the second quarter. Following the free throws, the Battling Bishops would go on another big run, this time scoring 16 straight points to take a 42-8 lead and a free throw by Zadria King ended the run. An offensive rebound and putback by Kaitlin Paul made the score 48-14 at halftime.

The Yellow Jackets played better in the second half and got some shots to fall. Defiance more than doubled their second half point total but were still outscored by Ohio Wesleyan in the half, 53-30. The visitors led by as many as 58 points and that came with 2:59 remaining in the game.

Ohio Wesleyan shot a blistering 60% from the field in the game and turned 25 Defiance turnovers into 47 points. The Bishops did most of their damage in the paint, scoring 76 of their 101 points in the paint area. 

The Yellow Jackets shot 27% in the game. Karrie Smith led the team in points with 11 and Taylor Bates grabbed a team-high six rebounds. Ali Mowen dished out three assists and Zadria King recorded the only block of the game for the Yellow Jackets.

The Yellow Jackets play their first road game of the year Sunday, November 12 at Heidelberg. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m.