DELPHOS — In the preseason, long-time Jefferson assistant girls basketball varsity coach Jamie Lewis expressed no hurry in getting a head coaching position.

He didn’t have a choice Saturday night; with long-time head man Dave Hoffman sidelined from an appendectomy late Friday night, Lewis stepped to the end of the bench as the youthful Lady Wildcats opened the 2007-08 campaign versus Antwerp at the Middle School Auditorium. The “green” Red and Black played like veterans in dispatching the Lady Archers 58-47. The Wildcats (1-0) — with only three letterwinners back — were also without freshman Kristin Klausing, sidelined indefinitely with a knee injury scheduled for surgery in late November, but canned a strong 23-of-46 from the field (50 percent).

Antwerp’s Amanda Riebersal (11 markers, 4 assists) netted the first basket early on but sophomore Stephanie Blockberger (6 boards, 4 assists), one of the veterans for the hosts, counted two consecutive hoops to give her team the lead for good. Jefferson’s full-court defense — a mix of 1-2-1-1 and 2-2-1 zones, dropping into a 2-3 zone — caused havoc for the visitors (1-1) in forcing nine turnovers in the opening period (23 overall). Blockberger scored all six of her points in the period. Sophomore Jenna Miller (15 markers, 2 3s), another letterwinner, was fouled with .3 ticks left trying a half-court heave; she netted 2-of-3 singles for a 16-8 edge.

“We didn’t have our legs at all tonight. We had a tough game (Friday) night and you could tell, especially the first half,” first-year Antwerp coach Tim Clemens noted. “I was not happy with our effort the first half. Plus, Jefferson’s a solid program and a solid team. We knew we’d have our hands full tonight.” Jefferson started 6-of-11 shooting against Antwerp’s 1-3-1 zone. The Archers started to find 5-11 Bryn Schlatter (22 counters, 7 caroms) more in the paint and the high post the second period (6 markers) but the hosts never allowed their lead to dip below six (twice), despite committing seven of their 23 errors. In fact, their lead reached 27-16 on sophomore Emily VanGrootheest’s (9 markers, 6 caroms, 4 burglaries) layin with 40 ticks to go before Schlatter’s jumper from the left elbow with 22 ticks to go accounted for the 27-18 Jefferson bulge. Jefferson only lost the rebounding battle 29-28 (13-10 offense) against the bigger Archers. “That was big. It was a battle all night but we stayed right with them despite our size disadvantage,” Lewis added. “We talked about the weaknesses in their 1-3-1 zone if they came out in it and that was on the back side. We could throw it over the top from one side to the other and the girls executed well.” Antwerp had its share of spurts in the second half but every time they tried, the Wildcats had the reply. Like early in the third period: Antwerp scored the first four but the hosts — with Miller scoring six — put down the next eight. The visitors answered with six in a row but that was all. The Wildcats had another 6-0 spurt before a Schlatter free toss with 39.6 seconds left made the score 41-31. Schlatter also picked up her fourth foul with 49.3 ticks left; she eventually fouled out. That single touched off a 7-0 span that got the Archers within 41-37 with 6:30 left in the contest but they could get no closer. The Jeffcats downed three straight baskets for a 10-point margin. The closest the Archers could get was six the rest of the way and Jefferson clinched it with a 7-2 closing run. “We aren’t the deepest team. Bryn and Jen (Womack; 9 boards) played 32 minutes the night before and basically went the whole way tonight,” Clemens added. “They hurt us when we had to come out and apply a little more pressure and that left the diagonal pass over the top wide open. We didn’t quit and that’s a good sign.” Antwerp shot 17-of-44 (0-of-4 triples) for 38.9% and 13-of-19 from charity for 68.4%. They amassed 15 fouls and visit Paulding Tuesday. Jefferson hit 2-of-9 3s and 10-of-15 singles (66.7%). Freshman Bridget Culp led the board work with 10, to go with five assists. They totaled 18 fouls and visit Fairview Tuesday (JV start 6 p.m.). In JV action, Kay Schlatter hit a free throw with 2:21 left in overtime for the only point as the visitors won 26-25. Kole Schlatter netted nine for the Archers. Freshman Shelbi Brown led all scorers in netting 11 for the home team (0-1).