MBB Preview: Men’s basketball seeks a bounceback at Hanover

DEFIANCE, Ohio — After back-to-back setbacks to start the conference schedule, the Defiance Yellow Jackets men's basketball team travels to Hanover on Saturday for a noon tipoff against the Panthers.

Last season, the two squads split two conference matchups with each school winning on their home floor. Hanover leads the all-time series with 49 victories to 35 by DC.

Defiance (2-4, 0-2 HCAC) was downed in their conference opener last Wednesday at Manchester followed by a home defeat to Franklin on Saturday. In their last two games, the Yellow Jackets have surrendered 36 3-pointers after holding their opponents to 24 total in their first four games. Turnovers have also haunted DC with an average of 15.5 per game and are 1-3 when committing 15 or more. The team's minus 3 turnover margin per game is the second-highest deficit in the conference.

The Jackets still lead the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference in scoring at 78.3 points per game and are the only team in the league shooting the 3-ball better than 40 percent (40.5, 64-for-158). Defiance enters the contest fresh off a week-long layoff that aligned with final week on campus.

Hanover (4-2, 1-0 HCAC) also has not played since last Saturday's 72-50 victory at Bluffton, which marked their first HCAC contest of the season. The Panthers also sport non-conference wins over Spalding, Taylor and Hope College.

Hanover likes to play at a much slower pace than Defiance with 64.3 points scored per game and holds opponents to 57.7 per night, which ranks first defensively in the HCAC. They are second in the league in rebounds (41 per game) thanks to the league's best defensive field goal percentage (39.2 percent) and average the fewest turnovers per game (8.8) among HCAC squads.

Individually for Defiance, Marell Jordan leads the way with 19.5 points per game, tied for second-most in the HCAC. Jordan is also Defiance's top rebounder at 5.2 per night and has dished out 3.2 assists per contest. His 13 steals are tied for third in the HCAC.

Aside from Jordan, the Jackets have been getting a lift off the bench by Te Jones. Jones is the team's second-leading scorer at 10.5 per game with four straight games in double-figures. Clayton McCorkle and Landen Swanner lead Defiance's 3-point attack with 11 and 10 makes from long range respectively with at least one make in all six games so far. 

For the Panthers, Max Greenamoyer is the top scorer at 14.2 points per game and 14 made 3-pointers. Ty Houston and Jack Wininger also post double-digit averages at 13.3 and 10.3 points per game respectively. Wininger is also the HCAC's leading rebounder at 9.7 per game.

Live video and stats of Saturday's matchup are available here.

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