For the third time in Jon Miller’s three years as Defiance College men’s basketball coach, he and his Jacket squad took the perennial-conference favorite Hanover College down to the wire at the Weaner Center, but, for the second time in three tries, DC came up on the short end, falling to the Panthers, 62-64 in overtime.
C.J. Johnson led an inspired DC squad with 20 points, including 13 in the second half, while also adding five boards, three assists, three steals and no turnovers at the point. Matt Laudick and Anthony Pettaway also scored in double figures with 16 and 12 points, respectively. Pettaway also added nine rebounds to lead the Jackets.
Hanover was led by Brian Chrin’s 18 points, while Robby Brown added 17. The Jackets were out-rebounded 39-30, while the two squads both hit about 46% of their shots from the floor.
The game of swings and runs, Defiance found themselves down 8-16 after a Chrin lay-in at the 12:22 mark of the first half. The hosts countered with buckets in the paint by Pettaway and Laudick to close the gap to two at intermission.
Hanover jumped out to 12 point lead after halftime, but Johnson and Bryan Post caused problems for the Panthers by penetrating and converting as part of a 13-4 run over six minutes. The visitors led by four with 50 seconds left, but two acrobatic lay-ups by Johnson knotted the game in the final seconds.
In overtime, Pettaway hit a tip-in and a jumper to give the Jackets a one-point lead with 2:30 remaining. A three-point play by HC’s Ben Lye, however, gave the Panthers the final lead of the game before a marathon of free throws.
The Jackets are now 8-8 on the season and 1-5 in the Heartland Conference. They will hit the road on Wednesday when they travel to Bluffton for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off.
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