Men's Basketball Defeated by Manchester

DEFIANCE, OHIO  --  The Defiance College men's basketball team came out on the losing end of a 79-60 matchup against Manchester (Ind.) University in a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference game in the regular-season home finale at the Karl H. Weaner Center.

The Yellow Jackets shot 43.6 percent (24-of-55) from the floor, but were held to just 20.0 percent (four-of-20) from behind the arc.  DC was led by senior Wade Wooley (Wauseon) who scored a team-high 17 points on seven-of-10 shooting (70.0 percent) and also grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds to complete the double-double.  

The duo of juniors Tyler Alexander (Indianapolis, Ind./Northwest) and Devin Mangas (Leipsic) were second with 13 points each and junior Michael Parker (Indianapolis, Ind./Lawrence North) rounded out the high scorers with 10 points.

Defiance (14-10, 12-5 HCAC) led early on, but momentum shifted in favor of Manchester (12-12, 9-8 HCAC) when the Spartans went on a 17-5 scoring run that resulted in an eight-point lead, 19-11, with just under 10 minutes to go in the first half.  Manchester went on to lead by as many as 10 points in the period, but a late 10-4 run by the Yellow Jackets narrowed the gap to four points, 31-27, with a minute to go following a three-pointer by Mangas.  

Manchester anwered with a jumper on its ensuing possession, but a successful triple by Parker capped the scoring in the half as the Spartans led, 33-30, at the break.

The Jackets pulled to within a point on a couple of occasions in the second half, but would not take the lead as the Spartans kept the intensity going and eventually built their lead back to over the 10-point plateu, 61-50, at the 5:23 mark.  

DC could not recover from the deficit as Manchester maintained their lead the rest of the way en route to posting their largest margin of the game with a final score of 79-60.

Manchester shot 51.9 percent (27-of-52) overall for the game, including 46.7 percent (seven-of-15) from three-point range.  The Spartans would also get to the free-throw line 23 times and made 18 of their attempts for a 78.3 shot percentage.  Individually, Manchester was led by Matt Brown with a game-high 34 points.  Brody Kirby was second with 13 points and Evan Romie added 12 points.

Defiance will conclude the regular season on Saturday, Feb. 20 when it travels to Terre Haute, Ind. for a HCAC game against Rose-Hulman (Ind.) Institute of Technology.  The game will be part of a basketball doubleheader with the DC women's team.  The women will tip-off against the Fightin' Engineers at 1 p.m., followed by the men at 3 p.m.