MOUNT VERNON — For about 12 minutes, the Mount Vernon Yellow Jackets played toe to toe with one of the perennial powerhouses in the Ohio Capital Conference.
Then the New Albany Eagles started to fly, and any thoughts of a Mount Vernon upset flew away.
After a 30-2 run over a 10-minute stretch, New Albany was able to pull away with a 59-32 victory in both teams’ Ohio Capital Conference opener.
Mount Vernon (1-1, 0-1 OCC) played most of the game without senior post Jordyn Peppers. Peppers hobbled off with an injured knee late in the first period after coming off the bench.
Without one of their star post players, the Jackets struggled to score inside. New Albany (2-0, 1-0 OCC) has no seniors, but it does have a number of post players who towered over the Mount Vernon players. Juniors Kyasia Duling (10 points, 12 rebounds) and Emily Rolwing (two points, four rebounds) snuffed out the Jackets in the first half, and junior Meghan Jayes (12 rebounds) and freshman Kyra Zuiderweg (three rebounds) came off the bench to play most of the final periods.
“We’re going to be outmatched, sizewize, for the entire year,” said Mount Vernon head coach Joe Rucker. “We know that going in. (Peppers) going down really hurt is. But there were some other girls who stepped up. Katie Martin and Hannah King did a nice job guarding their post players. We just got outmatched physically, which we take a lot of pride in.”


