DC Drops High-Scoring Contest at Heidelberg

TIFFIN, Ohio – The Jackets saw four players reach double figures in the scoring column but got beat on the glass and suffered a 92-78 road defeat on Tuesday night, after allowing Heidelberg to hit over 50 percent of its shots from the field.

Nick Sales led the way with his second-straight 24-point effort and added eight rebounds, five steals and a pair of blocks to go with nine-of-13 shooting. Mike Floyd ended with 15 points and his third-straight seven-assist performance to open the season.

Anthony Pettaway put up 14 points despite fouling out in only 22 minutes of play, while Kevin Tietje hit all four of his shots to end with 10 points. Kyle Tietje narrowly missed joining the foursome in double figures, finishing with nine points and five rebounds.

The Yellow Jackets found success all night in the paint, racking up 50 points in the key on 27-of-48 shooting from inside the three-point range. The 56-percent clip was undone by more struggles from long range, as DC connected on just 17.6 percent of its attempts from three-point range, sinking only three-of-17 attempts.

Defiance, who hit fewer than 34-percent of its attempts from beyond the arc for the third time in as many games to open the 2008-2009 campaign, is now just 27.3 percent on the season from downtown. DC has managed only 18-made trifectas in 66 attempts.

The Jackets also struggled to win the rebounding battle and saw Heidelberg claim a 41-32 advantage in that category. The rebounding advantage led to a 15-6 edge in second-chance points for the home squad.

The night started well for the Purple and Gold, as a Pettaway layup lifted DC to the early 6-4 lead. Back-to-back treys from Anthony Jackson and Kyle Tietje pushed the spread to 12-4, before a steal and hoop from Kevin Tietje capped the 10-0 spurt and gave Defiance the 14-4 advantage with 13:28 remaining in the opening period.

It would be all Heidelberg from that point on however, as the Berg closed the half on a 45-24 run to take a 49-38 lead at the break. The halftime lead would not be threatened in the second half, as Heidelberg led by at least seven points for the final 20 minutes of play.

Defiance falls to 1-2 with the loss and will have more non-conference action this weekend, as it competes in the Community versus Cancer Challenge on Nov. 29 and 30. The tournament will be hosted by DePauw and will showcase DC taking on Ohio Northern on Saturday at 8:00 pm. The Jackets will then play at either 2:00 or 4:00 pm on Sunday.