Defiance Uses Balanced Attack to Dispatch Mount St. Joseph

DEFIANCE, Ohio – Defiance College recorded its ninth straight home win against a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference opponent and never trailed in a 77-61 victory over Mount St. Joseph inside the Karl H. Weaner Community Center on Saturday.

The Jackets controlled nearly every aspect of the game, winning the battle of the glass by a 34-16 margin and outscoring Mount in second-chance points by a 16-0 clip. Defiance also outscored MSJ off the bench by a 39-14 gap, connected on 58.0 percent of its shots and held one of the HCAC's top-rated three-point attacks to only six makes at a 27.3-percent rate.

Four Yellow Jackets ended the balanced attack in double figures, with Bernard Edwards and Drew Frizell leading the way with 29 points off the bench for the Purple and Gold. Frizell led all players with 15 points, while Edwards added 14 on six-of-nine shooting.

Ryan Hicks also cracked double figures with 10, while Logan Wolfrum notched his fifth career double-double with 11 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and two steals move past Brett Wingate (1979-1983) for seventh place on DC's all-time scoring list with 1,579 career points.

Defiance wasted little time taking control of the action, bolting to a 30-16 lead and maintaining the comfortable 14-point cushion at the half with a 40-26 margin.

The Jackets did not allow an offensive rebound to the Lions (5-10, 4-4 HCAC) in the opening 20 minutes of play and stifled the MSJ shooters on the perimeter, while holding them to a one-of-10 performance in the first half.

A 10-2 spurt from the visitors out of the break trimmed the gap to six points but a three from Frizell helped stem the tide. DC would add another pair to push the lead back into double figures and was never threatened from that point on, cruising to the 77-61 win.

Defiance improved to 8-1 inside the Hive this season and notched its third-straight winning margin of at least 16 points against conference competition with the victory.

The Jacket (9-6, 5-3 HCAC) will look to carry that strong play with them on the road, as they are set to play at Earlham (2-13, 1-7 HCAC) on Wednesday at 7:30 pm.