Sales Joins 1,000-Point Club in Loss to Anderson

ANDERSON, Ind. – Nick Sales became the 43rd player in DC history to reach the 1,000-point plateau in a career but it was not enough to get Defiance past a hot-shooting Anderson team on Wednesday. AU set a school record by shooting 70.4 percent for the game, en route to handing the Jackets an 88-70 setback.

Defiance connected on six trifectas in the opening 20 minutes and shot 60.0 percent from inside the arc to overcome a 58.6-percent clip from Anderson and take a 44-36 lead into the break.

The tide would turn quickly into the second stanza, as AU dominated the paint over the final 20 minutes to take complete control of the game. The Ravens hit their first seven shots of the second half, with six of the buckets coming from the paint, to grab the 51-47 edge behind a 15-3 spurt to open the period.

Defiance temporarily withstood the surge from the home squad and cut the lead to 62-60 on an old-fashioned three-point play from Anthony Brown with 9:17 left in the contest. That would be DC's last field goal until the 2:23 marker however, as Anderson scored the game's next 21 points to blow open an 83-60 advantage.

Defiance had no answer for the powerful inside attack from Anderson, as the Ravens held a 36-6 edge in the paint, outrebounded DC 18-9 and hit 19-of-20 shots from two-point range in the second half to double up the Jackets, 52-26, over the final 20 minutes of action. For the game, AU piled up 62 points in the paint and hit 36-of-46 shots inside the arc.

Brown led the DC scoring attack by sinking five-of-11 attempts from beyond the arc for 20 points, while Kevin Tietje turned in 15 points. Sales ended with six points and eight rebounds to reach 1,000 points for his career.

Defiance (4-1, 0-1 HCAC) had its season-opening four-game win streak snapped with the loss to Anderson (4-1, 1-0 HCAC) and will look to rebound on Saturday, when it hosts Rose-Hulman (3-3, 0-1 HCAC) in a 3:00 pm tip.