Jackets fall 74-86 at Manchester
In another tough HCAC-road contest, the DC Yellow Jackets fell at Manchester College 86-74 on Wednesday night.
Curt Croy led a Jacket offensive attack that scored over 70 points for the twelfth time this season, with 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting, while emerging scoring threat, freshman Ryan Bruley hit for 17 with four three-pointers. Brett Hammons came off the bench to score 16 points and grab six boards. Phil Blasko and Matt Laudick scored eight and seven points respectively while Laudick led the Jackets with nine rebounds.
Defensively, the Jackets had trouble containing MC’s biggest scorer, Jamal Wade, who hit for 25 points on 7-of-13 shooting. DC was outrebounded 35-46 and was called for 22 fouls while Manchester was whistled only 13 times, resulting in a 7-for-14 to 21-for-29 discrepancy in free-throw shooting. Wade hit 9-of-10 charity attempts to lead the Spartans.
Hammons and Blasko led the Jackets in the early going, collectively scoring 14 of DC’s 21 points in the first 12 minutes while building a three-point lead. Defiance then went scoreless over the next three-and-a-half minutes and fell behind by one, 24-25 at the five-minute mark. After a Bruley three-pointer with two minutes left in the third the Spartans capitalized on six-straight points by Jon Cain, who ended with 16 points, to take a lead they would not relinquish.
In the second half MC rallied to a 13-point advantage with 12 minutes left when John Stephens buried a triple to make the count 57-44. Defiance would claw back to get within three when Matt Voland drove in for a lay-in at the 9:30 mark. After a Manchester time out, the Spartans found themselves up only three one minute later when another Bruley long-range strike made the score 60-57.
Matt Lewallen and Wade then hit two three pointers each to put the game out of reach at 74-61. The Spartans hit 10-of-12 free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
Defiance has lost 6-of-9 road contests but will have the friendly confines of the Weaner Center to return to on Saturday when they face the 7-13 (1-8 HCAC) Lions on Saturday at 3:00 pm. DC defeated the Mount 71-58 on January 17th.
Manchester will travel to Hanover on Saturday to face the conference-leading, nationally-ranked Panthers.