DC Dumps Hanover at the Horn to Advance to HCAC Semifinals

DEFIANCE, Ohio – Anthony Pettaway buried the game-winning shot on the left wing from 20 feet out as time expired, to lift Defiance to a thrilling, 69-68, win over the sixth-seeded Hanover Panthers on Tuesday night.

The Pettaway bucket provided the 11th and final lead change of the night and sent the Jackets into the HCAC Tournament Semifinals, where they will square off against the second-seeded Franklin Grizzlies (16-9) on Friday night at 6:00 pm on the campus of Transylvania.

Defiance put the game in Pettaway's hands after HC's Dane Coats hit a contested layup with 4.8 seconds left in the game to put the Panthers up by a 68-67 count. With DC facing the one-point deficit, Pettaway took the in-bounds pass and pushed the ball to half court, before Hanover used its sixth team foul of the half to stop the clock with 2.7 ticks remaining.

The Jackets used a timeout to draw up the final play and turned to Pettaway once again. This time the senior center got the ball at midcourt, before turning and driving towards the left wing and pulling up with the clock winding down. Pettaway's 20-foot jumper narrowly cleared the outstretched reach of Hanover's Dan O'Leary and sent the Karl H. Weaner Community Center crowd into a frenzy by finding the bottom of the net with the horn sounding to lift DC to the one-point win.

It did not look as if any last-second heroics would be needed early in the game, as Defiance unleashed a flurry of three-point shots to build a 37-25 halftime advantage. The Jackets knocked in seven-of-16 attempts from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes of action, including five makes in the final 6:22 to fuel a 22-6 spurt to close the stanza.

The Defiance cushion swelled to as many as 15 points in the opening minutes of the second period, before Hanover used an extended run of its own to draw even. The Panthers outscored DC by a 22-7 rate between the 17:14 and 11:36 marks to knot the score at 51-51 and set the stage for the down to the wire finish.

Neither side would lead by more than three points the rest of the way, with the teams battling through six ties and nine lead changes over the final 11 minutes.

Hanover took its largest lead of the second half on a Jake Inman jumper with 2:38 left to play but Heath Armstrong erased the two-point HC lead 12 seconds later and gave the Jackets the 67-66 advantage with a clutch three-point dagger from the corner.

That would cap the scoring until the closing seconds, when Coats' layup with 4.8 seconds left in the contest was ultimately countered by Pettaway's game-winner at the buzzer.

The exciting finish was nothing new for Defiance, which has been making a habit of overcoming second-half deficits during the season's stretch drive. The Jackets' win on Tuesday marked the eighth time in their last 11 wins that the team has rallied from behind in the final 20 minutes to secure a victory and marked the second time in that stretch that DC has accomplished the feat against Hanover.

Defiance rode one of its best outside shooting performances of the year to the victory, as DC's 10 makes from beyond the arc marked its highest single-game output since dropping 12 in during an 86-72 win over Manchester on Dec. 13. The Jackets ended 10-of-27 from downtown, behind multiple trifectas each from Anthony Brown, Eric Stolly, Mike Floyd and Armstrong.

That quartet combined for 36 points on the night and kept the Panthers from focusing only on the Jackets' dangerous post tandem of Pettaway and Nick Sales. The duo took advantage of the extra space, as Pettaway turned in his 30th career double-double with 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, while Sales added 13 points, nine boards and three helpers.

Defiance moves to 18-8 overall with its seventh-straight win against Hanover and will make its third-straight appearance in the HCAC Tournament Semifinals when it takes on Franklin on Friday evening at 6:00 pm.

Defiance and Franklin are no strangers when it comes to facing off in the HCAC Tournament, as the two squads will be meeting in the postseason for the third time in as many seasons. The two sides have split those meetings and the winner of Friday's installment will advance to play for the HCAC Championship on Saturday at 7:30 pm.