Men’s basketball begins home tournament with lopsided win over Spalding

DEFIANCE, Ohio – In the opening game of its 45^th Annual Purple and Gold Tournament on Friday, the Defiance College men's basketball team posted a convincing 93-72 win over the Spalding University Golden Eagles at the Karl H. Weaner Community Center.

"I thought our guys were ready to play," Defiance head coach Scott Cutter said. "You're not going to have a whole lot of halves where you shoot 70 percent.

"It was a fun game and the big thing for us was getting a lot of guys on the court and not just for a couple of minutes; guys got to play extended minutes which is so valuable for so many reasons for our program."

The Yellow Jackets built a 56-36 halftime lead by making 21 of 30 (70.0 percent) of their field goal attempts, including 13 of 19 (68.4) from behind the three-point arc. DC's advantage grew to 40 points, 85-45, with 9:22 left and the hosts cruised to a lopsided victory.

For the game, Defiance shot 53.0 percent (35 of 66) from the floor and finished at 51.4 (19 of 37) from three-point range. The Yellow Jackets outrebounded the Golden Eagles 40-29 and dished out 22 assists.

Micaiah Cox (Fort Recovery, Ohio/Fort Recovery) led the winners with a career- and game-high 20 points on 7-of-7 shooting from the field, including 4 of 4 on three-pointers. Cox also grabbed a game-best six rebounds while freshman Jack Kolar (Cincinnati, Ohio/Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy) tossed in 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three-point territory. Avonte Jones (Columbus, Ohio/Pickerington Central), another freshman, had 11 points off the bench while Sean Tyson (Columbus, Ohio/Centennial) chipped in with nine points and a game-high seven assists.

In Friday's second tournament game, the Great Lakes Christian College Crusaders defeated the Olivet College Comets by the score of 87-80. It was the season opener for Olivet while Great Lakes Christian is now 2-2.

DC improves to 2-0 overall on the season while Spalding drops to 0-2. The Purple and Gold Tournament concludes on Saturday. In the consolation game at 3 p.m., Spalding plays the Comets, followed by the championship matchup between Defiance and Great Lakes Christian at approximately 5 p.m.