Defiance Defeated By Manchester

NORTH MANCHESTER, IND.  --  The Defiance College men's basketball team fell behind at halftime which led to an 82-63 loss against Manchester (Ind.) University in a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference game in North Manchester, Ind.

Defiance was led by the duo of senior Devin Mangas (Leipsic) and sophomore Noah Goodrich (Toledo/Genoa) with 15 points each.  Mangas shot four-of-eight (50.0 percent) from the floor, with three of his four made field goals coming from three-point range (three-of-six).  Goodrich scored all of his points from behind the arc, going five-of-eight (62.5 percent) overall.

In addition, senior Keandre Gilmer (Toledo/Rogers) led DC in rebounding with a team-high eight boards.

Cold shooting in the first half resulted in a 26-point deficit at halftime for Defiance (6-18, 5-12 HCAC), as the Yellow Jackets shot just 22.2 percent (six-of-27) from the floor.  Manchester (8-16, 6-11 HCAC) tallied the first points of the game, but a lay-in by freshman Payton Ross (Indianapolis, Ind./Arlington) and a three-pointer by senior Michael Parker (Indianapolis, Ind./Lawrence North) gave the Jackets a 5-2 early lead.

The Spartans answered the five straight points by DC with seven consecutive points of their own to take a 9-5 advantage at the 16:01 minute mark.  Manchester continued to pull away with a series of scoring runs and knotched its first double-figure lead with 14 minutes to go in the half and quickly made it a 17-point margin, 27-10, with 11:36 remaining in the half.

Trailing by 15 points, 27-12, at the 10:40 mark, DC scored one point over the next 7:42 which allowed the Spartans to increase the deficit to 26 points, 39-13, with just over three minutes remaining.  Manchester recorded its largest lead of the game of 29 points, 44-15, with just under a minute to go and took a 44-18 margin into halftime.

The second half saw DC shoot 41.9 percent overall (13-of-31) and outscore Manchester, 45-38.  Defiance narrowed the gap to 14 points, 66-52, with 7:04 to play in regulation thanks to a triple by Mangas that was part of a 6-0 mini run.  But Manchester responded with an 8-1 run to go back over the 20-point plateau, 74-53, at the 5:04 mark.

The 14-point deficit was as close as the Jackets got the rest of way and would also get to within 15 points on two occasions in the final two-and-a-half minutes, but the earlier deficit would be too great as the Spartans went on to the 82-63 victory.

Defiance will wrap-up the regular season on Saturday, Feb. 18 when it hosts Rose-Hulman (Ind.) Institute of Technology on senior day at the Karl H. Weaner Center.  The game will be part of a basketball doubleheader with the Yellow Jacket women's team.  The women will tip-off against the Fightin' Engineers at 1 p.m., followed by the men at 3 p.m.