Strong Second Half Lifts Jackets to Fourth Straight Win

DEFIANCE, Ohio – Defiance used a 44-point effort in the second half to blow open its non-conference affair against Kalamazoo on Tuesday night. DC never trailed in the game and outscored the Hornets by 19 points after the break to secure the 81-55 victory.

The Jackets struggled to find a rhythm in the opening 20 minutes and connected on just 13-of-31 shots, while turning the ball over nine times. Despite the early struggles, DC held a double-digit lead throughout the majority of the half, before a late rally from Kalamazoo cut the Jacket cushion to 37-30 at the break.

The lead dropped to just four points on three separate occasions in the first five minutes of the second stanza, but DC's Nick Sales provided the counter punch the first two times and Anthony Pettaway's layup pushed the spread back to six at 43-37 with 15:44 showing on the clock.

The lead then swelled to 11 after Sales tipped in a missed three on one end and then picked up a steal and assisted an Anthony Brown trifecta to give DC the 48-37 edge. The Hornets drained a trey to temporarily get back within single digits, but a Mike Floyd runner put the lead back to double figures to stay at 50-40.

Defiance would then blow the game open with a 14-4 spurt to grab a 64-44 lead and never looked back. DC ended the game by outscoring Kalamazoo 31-16 over the final 14 minutes of action and cruised to the 26-point win.

The Jackets lifted their final shooting percentage to a healthy 46.9 percent and sank 15-of-19 from the charity stripe. DC's six made field goals from three-point range marked the team's second-lowest output on the season, but a 51-28 edge on the glass and a 20-6 advantage in second-chance points more than made up the difference.

Sales led the way down low by recording his first double-double performance of the season. The junior forward tallied 12 points and eight rebounds in the second half alone and ended with 16 points, 11 boards, five assists and a pair of steals in 24 minutes of work.

Brown followed Sales in double figures with 15 points to go with seven rebounds, while Pettaway scored 14 and Heath Armstrong added 11 to round out the Jackets in double figures.

The win was DC's ninth in as many tries against Kalamazoo on the hardwood and moved the Jackets to 5-3 overall. DC will be back in action on Thursday evening, when it plays at Ohio Wesleyan (4-3) at 8:00 pm.