FRANKLIN, Ind. – The Yellow Jacket women basketball program wrapped up its regular season on Saturday afternoon with a tough road test at the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference's second place team, Franklin College. The Purple and Gold fought the Grizzlies to the final horn, but came up just short of obtaining the road upset, as DC lost by a final score of 61-56.
Franklin controlled the game in the early stages, as the Grizzlies jumped out to a quick eight-point advantage in the first seven minutes with the score 13-5.
Defiance quickly responded with a run of its own, as the Yellow Jackets scored 18 of the game's next 21 points to grab its first lead of the contest at 23-16 with just over 10 minutes left in the first frame. Marissa Kath, Kim Comden and Erica King combined to score 15 of the Jackets' points during the spurt.
Franklin managed to weather the Defiance storm and keep the score close throughout the rest of the opener, as Defiance took a 31-28 lead into the halftime break. King and Comden totaled 18 of DC's 31 points on a combined 8-14 shooting, including two treys from King.
Like the beginning of the first half, the Grizzlies came out of the halftime gates with a sense of urgency and outscored DC by a margin of 10-2 in the half's first seven minutes to give Franklin a 38-33 advantage.
The Jackets once again battled back and regained the lead four minutes later at 43-42, thanks to the DC bench scoring the Purple and Gold's next 10 points. Comden then added a layup to push the lead to three points at the eight-minute mark.
The two squads exchanged blows over the next minute and a half, with both teams gaining and losing the lead. Franklin's Annie Tarkington hit a layup with 6:37 left on the clock to give the Grizzlies a one-point advantage at 53-52.
From that point on FC took over the game and refused to relinquish the lead. The Grizzlies closed out the game scoring eight of the last 12 points to secure a 61-55 victory and a first-round bye in the HCAC Tournament.
Comden and King led the way for Defiance in the scoring column. Comden had a game-high 17 points, while adding six rebounds. King finished with 15 and connected on 3-6 shots from distance.
With the loss, the Purple and Gold finish the regular season with a record of 14-11 and place fourth in the HCAC with a record of 11-7.
The Yellow Jackets are the four seed in the HCAC tournament and play the Manchester in the first round four versus five matchup. The game will take place on Friday, February 22 at 6:00 p.m. at Transylvania University. The winner of the game will play Transylvania on Saturday at 3:00 p.m.