January 27, 2001


The Bluffton College women's basketball team fell to Heartland Conference leader Defiance College Saturday afternoon in Founders Hall by an 81-69 final score. Defiance remains perfect in the HCAC with a 7-0 league record and improves to 15-4 overall, while Bluffton falls to 3-4 in the HCAC and 9-9 overall.

Bluffton senior Jen Bear (Grover Hill/Lincolnview) collected a career-high 18 rebounds in the game and added 10 points and a team-high three steals.

Defiance shot 50.8% from the floor and collected 15 steals in the game. Bluffton outrebounded the Yellow Jackets 37-33 and connected on seven 3-pointers, three of which came from senior Kristy Crall (Bucyrus/Wynford), who led the Beavers with 18 points. Sophomore Kristin Helvey (Toledo/Central Catholic) added 15 points and dished out a team-high five assists.

Bluffton held Defiance's leading scorer Lea Barrera to just 11 points, but Barrera dished out a game-high seven assists and collected five steals. Jen Wachtman led Defiance with 20 points, while Arin Gertsen netted 17 points and Anna Fretz chipped in 13.

Bluffton will travel to Mount St. Joseph Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m.