Men’s basketball begins season with 71-64 setback to unbeaten Bluffton

DEFIANCE, Ohio – On Friday night, the Defiance College men's basketball team opened its long-awaited 2020-21 season with a 71-64 loss to the rival Bluffton University Beavers at the Karl H. Weaner Community Center.

The game was Defiance's first since ending the 2019-20 season on Feb. 22, 2020. It also marked the Yellow Jackets' first home contest in exactly 11 months when they hosted Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology on Feb. 15, 2020.

"I was proud of our effort tonight," DC head coach Scott Cutter said. "Our first half certainly wasn't a thing of beauty but it wasn't completely shocking with it being our first game and having a number of new players that were putting their jerseys on for the first time."

Defiance never led in the contest as Bluffton built a 39-17 halftime lead. The Beavers took their biggest advantage of the night, 56-31, with 11:19 left before a 25-7 run by the Yellow Jackets made the score 63-56 with 3:22 to go. DC trailed by seven points on four other occasions down the stretch, but could never get within that margin.

"It just took us time to find a rhythm and I thought once we did, we played fairly well," Cutter said. "We just need to learn from what we did tonight and bounce back with a better performance from the tip tomorrow. The guys stuck together and the bench energy was great when we were down and that is something we are always building and know it has to be in place to win consistently."

BU finished 28 of 58 (48.3 percent) from the field, compared to 23 of 56 (41.1 percent) for the hosts. Defiance was outrebounded, 43-25, but committed just 12 turnovers to Bluffton's 18. The Yellow Jackets also came up with eight steals while the guests had five.

"I thought Bluffton played well, and they deserve a lot of credit for how they played," Cutter said. "Coach (Guy) Neal does a tremendous job and his players compete hard game in and game out."

Jack Kolar tossed in a game-high 20 points for DC while freshman Dan Luers ended with 17 in his first collegiate contest. Tyler Andrew chipped in with 10 points and eight rebounds while Chase Glock added eight points and eight boards.

The Beavers improve to 4-0 overall on the season. The same teams meet tomorrow at 4 p.m. in Bluffton, Ohio.