Jackets’ Upset Bid Falls Short Against No. 19 Rose-Hulman

DEFIANCE, Ohio – The Defiance College men's basketball program honored Logan Wolfrum and Marcus Dunlap as part of its Senior Day ceremony and then pushed No. 19 Rose-Hulman to the brink, before coming up one-point shy of the upset in the 63-62 defeat on Saturday afternoon.

The Yellow Jackets rebounded from an early 8-3 deficit by turning to Ryan Hicks, Travis Schomaeker and Wolfrum to fuel a 13-0 spurt that flipped the lead to Defiance via a 16-8 advantage.

Defiance would maintain control of the lead throughout the remainder of the opening half, taking a 32-25 edge to the break and pushing the gap into double figures on a Mason Roth layup with 17:23 left in the final stanza.

The 38-28 DC lead would be trimmed quickly to three points by Rose-Hulman, before triples from Schomaeker and Drew Frizell extended the margin back to 44-37 and another trey from Schomaeker opened up a 47-39 cushion for the Jackets with 11 minutes to play in the contest.

DC would hold an eight-point spread until under the eight-minute mark, when R-H's senior reserve, Nate Gissentanner, erupted for seven of the next 11 points for the visitors. Gissentanner capped the surge with a three-point shot that lifted Rose-Hulman to a 56-55 lead with 5:23 showing on the clock. Gissentanner did not stop there however, answering a game-tying triple from Bernard Edwards with another long-ranged make that gave the Engineers a 63-60 lead.

Roth answered with a deuce in the paint to draw the Jackets within a single point with 1:53 showing on the clock, but neither side could put any further points on the board and Rose-Hulman escaped with the 63-62 victory.

Gissentanner ended with a career-high 20 points off the bench, with all 20 coming in the second half on seven-of-nine shooting from the floor.

Edwards and Schomaeker countered for Defiance with 15 points each, while Wolfrum added 11 and Roth filled the stat sheet with eight points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Defiance (14-9, 10-6 HCAC) will look to bounce back when it plays at Bluffton (10-13, 6-10 HCAC) on Wednesday at 8:00 pm in the 190th meeting on the planks between the two programs.

The game will be webcast live by the Yellow Jacket Sports Network, as part of the doubleheader with the women playing at 6:00 pm.