Tiffin University's women's basketball team hasn't had the best of luck to start off the season. Before the Dragons even took the court for the first game, they lost two of their five upperclassmen to injury in Alexis Karel and Holly Focke.So when Slippery Rock hit a three pointer to tie the game at 55 with 3:41 remaining, it looked like the Dragons were going to be snake bitten again. After falling behind 10-8 in the first half and trailing the whole game, the Rock buried the three to knot the game and take the momentum. However, it was the young Dragons, led by sophomore Mandy Jaeb, who used a 10-0 run down the stretch to seal a 65-55 victory in their first game of the season at TU.

Jaeb hit a three pointer with 1:35 remaining and made a layup, getting fouled in the process, after a nifty pass from freshman Karli Mast to put the Dragons up by six with 53 seconds remaining. Jaeb would add two free throws with 16 ticks remaining to wrap up her monster half. She scored 17 points in the second half along with grabbing five rebounds and dishing out two assists. She finished the game 12 of 12 from the free throw line to go along with her team high 24 points and five assists.

"Mandy's been a person even when she came in her freshmen year that started to take that leadership role," Dragons coach Pam Oswald said. "She understood at the end of last season what we needed her to do, and she's continued that. In talking with her, I told her she needed to be a play maker. She's our veteran as a sophomore."

Jaeb knew what she had to do coming into the game. "We are a young team and we knew it," she said. "I knew when Holly went down I had to step it up."

Freshman Jordan Jankins backed up Jaeb with ten points while grabbing five rebounds. Jonette McQueen, also a freshman, grabbed nine rebounds as did junior Samantha McCall. McCall also dished out four assists just like teammate Mast.

Oswald liked her team's chances coming down the stretch. "They are definitely going out there and pouring their hearts out," Coach Oswald said of her young squad. "So we knew if we could at least keep the pace and never get too high or too low that we had a good chance of pulling it out."

The Dragons, who only trailed early in the game when the score was 4-2, held the advantage on rebounds 45-35. They also had fewer turnovers than Slippery Rock (14-13).

"These kids that we've been able to bring in are never say die," said Coach Oswald. "I thought we really kept our heads in the game and did what we needed to do."

The 1-0 Dragons will next be in action Friday when they travel to Merrimack.