Road Woes Continue for DC Men in Loss at Bluffton

BLUFFTON, Ohio – Defiance College dropped to 1-4 on the road this season in Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference action, while seeing Bluffton snap its 17-game losing streak with a stunning, 91-83, victory over the Jackets inside of Founders Hall on Wednesday evening.

The Beavers controlled the action throughout the night behind an unusually efficient scoring attack. Bluffton, which entered with an HCAC-worst 54.6 points per game, matched that total in the second half alone while pouring in 54 of its 91 after the break to hold off any threat of a Defiance rally. The 91 points for BU was its highest total of the year and marked just the second time this season that Bluffton had scored over 70 points.

Defiance made its lone run of the contest in the opening minutes of the second half, after a Bluffton deuce had lifted the Beavers to their largest lead of the game at 39-19 with 19:36 to play. DC finally got on track following that hoop and poured in 25 points in the next eight minutes of action to claw to within five points at 49-44 with 11:39 showing on the clock.

The Defiance surge was quickly derailed by a pair of technical fouls however, as Bluffton used the break in momentum to regain control. The Beavers capitalized on the two separate stoppages by hitting six free throws that fueled the ensuing 22-7 spurt that was capped by a Brent Farley dunk.

When the dust had settled, Defiance faced yet another 20-point deficit, 71-51, with just over six minutes to play. The Jackets never recovered from the rapid swing and suffered the eight-point defeat.

Defiance netted 64 points over the final 20 minutes but could not overcome its poor first half and could not stop Bluffton's (1-16, 1-7 HCAC) parade to the charity stripe, where it sank 29-of-36 attempts to overcome DC's 42-32 edge in the paint and 21-9 advantage in second-chance points.

Nick Sales proved to be the lone bright spot for DC on the night, as the senior forward connected on 10 of his 13 field goals and ended with 25 points, 13 rebounds and one block. The double-double effort was Sales' 23rd in his career and bumped him into 28th on DC's all-time scoring list with 1,166 points.

Defiance (13-3, 4-4 HCAC) will hope to cure its struggles on the road, as it travels to Rose-Hulman (6-11, 2-6 HCAC) on Saturday for a 3:00 pm tip.