DC’s second half charge falls short to Anderson

DEFIANCE, Ohio – Defiance College mounted multiple second-half rallies in an attempt to make up ground against Anderson but dropped an 88-81 decision at the Weaner Center on Wednesday night.

Yellow Jackets (7-16, 4-12 HCAC) and Ravens (15-7, 12-4 HCAC) traded blows during a feverish fourth quarter that featured a combined 57 points to help Anderson's Lexi Dellinger climb to a game-high 35 points while DC's Taylor Day finished with 22.

The difference came down to shooting the basketball. Defiance won the battle of the boards, 43-38, and committed three fewer turnovers but Anderson shot 55 percent with 13 3-pointers. DC's women shot 40 percent and hit just four 3s in comparison. The Yellow Jackets did make up some of that ground at the free throw line where they went 17-for-23 while Anderson shot from the charity stripe just 17 times and made seven.

Anderson stretched a 10-point halftime lead to a game-high 18 points with an 8-2 run to start the third quarter. Defiance got into rhythm with a Day score in front of the hoop three minutes into the period. Then the Yellow Jackets came screaming back into competition on a 15-2 run to pull within five points with just under four minutes left in the quarter. Defiance's third-quarter run featured triples by Kylie Brinkman and Ali Mowen plus two more lay-ins by Day. DC kept the game within six until Izzy Smith found a bucket in the paint to stretch the lead back to eight.

Defiance let up another Anderson scoring run of 8-0 to begin the fourth quarter to dig a 16-point hole. After keeping the separation in the mid-teens for most of the quarter, the Jackets found another spark with a 7-0 spurt started by a 3-pointer from Addy Allen. Dellinger extinguished Defiance's fire with a triple of her own, her fifth of the game, with 1:27 left to stall the Yellow Jackets' remaining momentum.

The first quarter saw Defiance rally from down 5-1 to tie the game 5-5, but Dellinger, the HCAC's leading scorer, got her big night started by posting eight of the next 10 points for the Ravens. Two of those made baskets by Dellinger were two of her five 3-pointers to push Anderson to a 10-point lead by the first media timeout. Cait Good and Lauren Criblez each hit two-point jumpers to inch back to within single digits before Good sank a triple to make it a five-point game. Defiance was within six in the final quarter but another Dellinger trey made the score 24-15.

The Jackets punched back to start the second quarter with layups by Good and Criblez. Defiance kept chipping away and got within four with just over six minutes left in the quarter on a Taylor Steinbrunner layup. It remained within four points when buckets by Anderson Lauren Smith and Dellinger were answered by Defiance's Addy Allen and McKenzie Cooper with mid-range jumpers.

With the score 31-27 Anderson with 3:07 remaining before halftime, Anderson went on an 11-4 run to close the second quarter and matched their largest lead of the first half of 10 before heading to the locker room. 

Dellinger compiled a double-double for the Ravens on 35 points and 11 rebounds. Day did the same for Defiance with 22 points and 10 rebounds to go with a game-high five assists. Taylor Steinbrunner scored 17 for Defiance and freshman Addy Allen chipped in a career-best nine points and four assists.

-JACKETS-