[Stardust]

utrebounded and out of luck from 3-point range, the Mercy Academy basketball team still found a way to capture its 20th victory Friday night.

The Roush twins combined for 38 points and 15 rebounds, and Victoria Dircksen pitched in 11 points as the host Jaguars bested rival Sacred Heart, 62-57, in a battle of Top 20 teams in The Courier-Journal’s Litkenhous Ratings.

They did it despite being outrebounded 37-32 and finishing 0 of 8 from 3-point range.

“We find ways to win,” Jaguars coach Mark Evans said. “But against quality teams, most of the time we’re not going to win that battle if we don’t rebound.

“They took away our 3s,” he said. “They took away key players. We did a nice job the second half of adapting to that. And the Roushes both played extremely well."

Courtney Roush had 23 points and Christine Roush added 15 points, 11 rebounds and four steals as No. 3 Mercy improved to 20-4.

DaiJia Ruffin had 18 points, 13 rebounds and four assists to lead No. 19 Sacred Heart (14-10), and senior Erica Walsh hit 4 of 5 3-point tries on her way to a career-high 18 points.

Still, the Valkyries dropped to 1-5 this season against current Top 20 teams. Four of those losses have come by 8 points or less.

“We just have to execute a little bit better down the stretch,” coach Donna Moir said. “I thought we had a great game plan and took them out of a lot of things they want to do.”

Neither team led by more than six points in a game that featured nine ties and 10 lead changes.