Defiance Pulls Out Road Win Against Lions

CINCINNATI, Ohio – An old-fashioned three-point play from Nick Sales with 27 ticks left on the clock completed yet another second-half comeback for the Defiance College men's basketball team and sent the Jackets to a 68-64 road victory at Mount St. Joseph.

The second-half heroics have become a habit for the Purple and Gold of late, as Defiance has rallied to overcome a second-half deficit in six of its last eight victories. Wednesday night at the Mount would be just another chapter in that story, as the Yellow Jackets fended off six different MSJ leads of eight-or-more points in the final 20 minutes to escape with the narrow four-point victory.

The final DC surge was ignited by an Anthony Brown triple with 5:27 left in the game. The long-distance bomb trimmed a 58-50 MSJ advantage to just five points and was followed just over one minute later with a hoop and free throw from Sales to get Defiance within two.

The Lions' lead would hover between two and four points for the next two-plus minutes, until Eric Stolly dialed in from beyond the arc to pull DC within 63-62 at the 1:57 mark. Defiance then pulled ahead when Mike Floyd found Sales for his second three-point play in the final spurt to give the Jackets a 65-63 lead with 27 seconds remaining in the game. Defiance would tack on free throws from Heath Armstrong and Floyd in the closing seconds to secure the 68-64 victory.

The pair of three-point plays from Sales were key down the stretch, as the junior forward scored six of DC's last 18 points to fuel an 18-6 rally for the Jackets in the final 5:27 of action.

Sales and Anthony Pettaway did the majority of their work in the second stanza, as Sales scored 13 of his 15 points after the break and Pettaway netted 15 of his season-high 23 points in the final 20 minutes.

For the game, Pettaway led all scorers with his 23 tallies and ripped down a game-high 14 rebounds to record his eighth double-double effort of the year. Brown joined Sales and Pettaway in double figures with 12 points and Floyd sparked the attack by handing out five helpers.

The win was DC's seventh in its last eight showings and moved the Yellow Jackets into a tie for second in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference standings. Defiance (15-7, 10-3 HCAC) will look to keep its HCAC regular season title hopes alive when it hosts Rose-Hulman (9-14, 4-10 HCAC) on Saturday at 3:00 pm.