Sales Leads Jackets to Victory Against Geneva

DEFIANCE, Ohio – The Defiance College men's basketball team upped its all-time record in the Purple and Gold Tournament to 52-16 and notched a victory in the event for the 34th-straight year by handling Geneva, 93-79, on Tuesday evening.

The Yellow Jackets held at least a portion of the lead for the final 35 minutes of play in the win and led by double figures for the final 6:01 of action, en route to scoring the 14-point victory over the Golden Tornadoes.

Defiance built a 44-30 lead early into the second stanza before withstanding a 20-8 flurry from Geneva which narrowed the DC advantage to just 52-50 with 13:43 remaining in the game. Geneva caught fire from long range during that spurt, hitting five of its 14 trifectas in that time to fuel the comeback.

Mike Floyd stemmed the tide with a steal and a bucket to push the spread back to four points and the Jackets' lead would hover between three and eight points until layups from Floyd and Nick Sales extended the lead to double figures at 79-69 with 6:01 left in the game.

The Jackets would then get an old-fashioned three-point play from Sales and a basket from Anthony Brown to take an 84-69 lead, before cruising to the 93-79 victory.

Defiance struggled from three-point territory for the second time in as many nights but turned to Sales to take over the game on the inside. Sales responded by pouring in a career-best 29 points on 11-of-15 shooting and adding eight rebounds and two blocks.

Floyd narrowly missed a double-double and broke his own HCAC single-game record by passing out 16 assists to go with eight points, four steals and only two turnovers. Brown sank seven-of-16 attempts from the floor, including going five-of-eight from inside the arc to end with 17 points and Kevin Tietje turned in another solid performance with 11 points and nine rebounds. Anthony Jackson also provided a major spark in his second game back from injury by logging nine points, six boards and two blocks in his 17 minutes of work.

Despite facing yet another red-hot shooting performance from the opposition, the Jackets answered by shooting 57 percent from inside the arc. Geneva drained 14-of-26 from downtown but was no match for DC's 52-18 advantage in the paint.

Sales and Kevin Tietje were each named to the 2008 Purple and Gold All-Tournament Team for their efforts. Sales, who was also named as the Gerry Boomer Sportsmanship Award winner, averaged 24.0 points and 7.5 rebounds, while hitting 77.3 percent of his shots from the floor in the two games and Tietje averaged 13.5 points and 11.0 boards.

Defiance (7-4, 2-0 HCAC) will return to HCAC play on Saturday when it hosts Transylvania (7-3, 1-1 HCAC) in a key early-season league showdown. Tip is set for 3:00 pm and will follow the women's game at 1:00 pm.