Jackets Place Four on All-HCAC Squad

GREENWOOD, Ind. – The Defiance College men's basketball team topped the 17-win plateau for the third-straight season, while also reaching the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament Semifinals for the third year in a row and has placed four players on the All-HCAC Team.

Senior and 2007-2008 HCAC Player of the Year, Anthony Pettaway, was selected First-Team All-HCAC along with juniors Mike Floyd and Nick Sales. Fellow junior Heath Armstrong was also named All-HCAC, after taking honorable mention honors.

The Yellow Jackets posted an 18-9 overall mark in 2008-2009 and tore through the conference schedule with a 12-4 clip. Defiance has now won 37 games over the past two seasons and owns 54 victories in the last three for the best three-year total since racking up 59 wins from 1988-1990. DC has also dominated conference play during that time, posting a 34-14 clip and notching wins in 25 of its last 32 league contests.

The quartet of Floyd, Pettaway, Sales and Armstrong played a major role in the success of the 2008-2009 squad, combining to score just under two-thirds of the team's points for the season.

Floyd earned a spot on the All-HCAC First-Team after garnering back-to-back nods as an All-HCAC Honorable Mention player in his first two years with the Yellow Jackets. The junior floor general averaged 7.7 points and 3.4 rebounds a night, while dishing out an HCAC-leading 6.8 assists per game for the 10th-best clip in the nation. Floyd passed out at least four helpers in 22 of his 26 games en route to piling up 178 for the year, marking the fifth-highest single-season total in Defiance history. The Toledo, Ohio, native broke the HCAC single-game assist record twice, earning HCAC Player-of-the-Week recognition after racking up 15 assists in an 86-72 win over Manchester and then going for 16 in a 93-79 win against Geneva. Floyd was also second in the league with a 2.02 assist-to-turnover ratio and ranked 12th with 1.15 steals per game and will enter his fourth and final year with the Jackets with 367 career assists, marking the second-highest total in school history.

Pettaway bagged his third-straight selection as a First-Team All-HCAC player, after setting career highs with 453 points, 256 rebounds, 50 assists and 30 blocks during his final collegiate campaign. The dynamic center started all 27 games for the Jackets, piled up 11 double-doubles and led DC in scoring 13 times. Pettaway backed up a pair of preseason All-American honors by ending fifth in the HCAC in scoring (17.3 ppg), second in rebounds (9.1 rpg), third in blocks (1.4 bpg) and seventh in field goal percentage (57.1%) over the course of 16 league games. The Toledo, Ohio, native finished strong by netting 20.1 points and 10.4 boards a night over his final nine outings. Pettaway's solid finish bolstered his place as one of the best players to wear a Defiance College uniform, as he climbed to 11th on the program's all-time scoring charts with 1,477 points, while ranking second with 75 blocks and sixth with 767 rebounds and 617 made field goals.

Sales joined Floyd and Pettaway as a First-Team All-HCAC selection after setting new career highs with 27 games started, 434 points scored, 235 total rebounds and 30 steals during his junior season. The athletic forward finished behind only Pettaway on the team with 16.1 points and 8.7 rebounds per game for the year and ranked ninth in the nation with a blistering 63.8-percent clip from the floor. Sales turned in eight double-doubles and was DC's top performer during the season's final 17 games, where he netted 17.5 points and 9.6 boards per night. The two-time All-HCAC player ranked favorably among several statistical categories over 16 league games, leading the HCAC with 9.4 rebounds per night and ending second in field goal percentage (62.9%), sixth in scoring (16.2 ppg), 10th in blocks (0.7 bpg) and 13th in steals (1.12 spg). Sales will enter his senior season as the Jackets' all-time leader in field goal percentage (62.6%), while ranking third with 65 blocks and needing just 70 points to become the 43rd member of DC's 1000-point club.

Armstrong made his first appearance on the All-HCAC Team, taking honorable mention honors after setting career highs in nearly every key statistic during his junior season. The sharp-shooting guard finished as the third-leading scorer on Defiance with 9.0 points a night behind 39.0-percent shooting from behind the three-point line. Armstrong turned in one of the most prolific three-point performances in DC history by knocking in 62 makes from long distance and connecting on multiple trifectas in 17 games this season, while hitting at least one trey in 23 outings for the Jackets. Defiance excelled behind Armstrong's hot hand, posting a 13-4 record in games when the Fayette, Ohio, native hit two-or-more threes and going 9-1 when he scored double figures. Armstrong found his range in HCAC action, ranking second among all conference players with 2.5 made threes per night, 11th with a 42.1-percent clip from long range and 20th with 10.4 points a night in league games.

The Jackets are set to return all but two players from this year's team and will figure to be a force in the HCAC once again behind a talented senior crop of Floyd, Sales, Armstrong, Eric Stolly, Nate Conley and Josh Stuckey and a promising sophomore class of Anthony Brown, Kyle and Kevin Tietje, Brandon Hoke and Justin Morris.