The Defiance College Yellow Jackets fell at Transylvania University on Saturday, 68-75 to end their HCAC regular season.
Junior Matt Voland led the Yellow Jackets, who had a 31-25 lead at the half, with 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting, also grabbing seven rebounds. Brett Hammons was the only other Jacket in double figures with 12 points, while leading DC with eight rebounds. The Pioneers were led by Matt Finke and Joey Searle with 15 points apiece.
The Jackets won the rebounding battle, 35-30, but were done in by 44% shooting from the floor while hitting only 26% from long range. TU took advantage of the Jacket shooting by hitting 7-of-16 three-point attempts (44%).
DC’s Jason Smolenski scored nine points and had four rebounds, while Ryan Bruley and Phil Blasko each had eight points in the loss. The Jackets scored 11 second-chance points on 13 offensive rebounds but gave up 13 points-off-turnovers and were outscored in bench points, 27-19.
Transy jumped out to a 9-4 lead out of the gates when Joey Searle hit a jumper but later lost the lead when Hammons tipped-in a Bruley miss to make the score 16-15 DC. The Jackets took their halftime lead on a 5-0 run with Smolenski scoring on a lay-in with a foul and made free throw and two Blasko free throws.
After leading 41-40 with two Aaron Lammers free throws, the Jackets were outscored 21-10 over the next ten minutes and found themselves down 10 points with under four minutes to play. The Pioneers hit 10-of-14 free throws down the stretch to ice the win.
DC finishes the regular season at 11-13 overall and 5-9 in the Heartland Conference. The Jackets will host Mount St. Joseph in the first round of the HCAC Tournament on Tuesday. The Mount defeated Anderson 61-58 on Saturday to assume fifth place in the conference standings.
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