On Wednesday night, the women’s basketball team dropped a game to Presidents’ Athletic Conference competitor, Thomas More, a nationally ranked team.

Head coach Sam Jones said he believed having a break before playing at home provided a spark in the first quarter, where the Yellow Jackets jumped out to a 16-15 lead.

“We came right out of the gate playing pretty well, I was very happy with how we started,” said Jones. “We had a lot of energy, hit some shots and made some plays.”

Senior Addy Knetzer led the team in scoring with 15 points and nine rebounds.  Seniors Mackenna Drazich, Rachel Eng and freshman Andrea Orlosky each added 13 points.

Despite out rebounding the Saints, 41-39, the Jackets struggled to put points on the board during the second quarter, being outscored 28-6.  According to Jones, the Jackets became hesitant in their play and started to miss shots they were making in the first quarter.

“Offensively we stopped doing what we did in the first [quarter] that was successful,” said Jones. “Then we got tentative and when you do that against an aggressive team, they got some steals that led to some easy buckets.”

Thomas More then went on a run, forcing a Jacket timeout during the second quarter.

“They went on a little bit of a run, we called a timeout. [But] we never really recovered and then the run extended,” said Jones. “Then we got tight and stopped communicating on defense, and gave up some easy plays.”

The Saints finished the first half on an 18-0 run, taking a 43-22 lead into the locker room.

Unfortunately, the second quarter issues carried over for the Jackets on both sides of the ball.  One of the major struggles throughout the night was turning over the ball, something they did 22 times against the Saints.

“We had some silly turnovers that were unforced,” said Jones.

The Saints went on to outscore the Jackets in the second half, 46-41 in route to the first victory over the Jackets on the season, extending their record to 13-1 overall and 7-0 in the PAC, enough to put them in first place in the conference.

The two teams will meet again on Feb. 10 in Crestview Hills, Kentucky.  The Jackets will review the areas that need improvement and prepare for their next task on Saturday.

“We will need to look at the film and see areas where we can get better,” said Jones. “We know defensively our rotations [need improvement] and then offensively be the aggressor and take it to them instead of letting them push us out of our comfort zone.”

Tied for third in the PAC, the Jackets return to action on Saturday with a trip to Beaver Falls to take on Geneva in conference action, tip-off is set for 1 p.m.

“We just need to play with energy and focus, which we played with energy [the whole night], we just lost our focus,” said Jones. “We need to be consistent [with both] and keep that focus for all 40 minutes.”