MBB Preview: Yellow Jackets return home to tangle with Transy

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DEFIANCE, Ohio – After playing their previous four games away from the Karl H. Weaner Center, the Defiance College men's basketball team will play their first home game since a December 14 victory against Olivet with a 3 p.m. tipoff against the Transylvania Pioneers.

DC is off to an 0-5 start in HCAC play, 5-7 overall, after losing their last two at Mount St. Joseph and Bluffton. Saturday's contest opens up a home-friendly stretch as Defiance plays five of their next seven games on their home court as they look to climb back into the conference battle with 13 games left.

Transylvania enters with a 5-7 record and 2-3 conference mark after Wednesday's win over 1-11 Earlham, which snapped the Pioneers' three-game losing streak. Out of their six losses, three were to nationally-ranked squads at the time or received top-25 votes (Elmhurst, Wheaton and Roanoke).

Points should be easy to find in this matchup with both DC and Transy among the top scoring offenses and highest scoring averages allowed among HCAC teams. Defiance posts 71 points per game by shooting 41 percent and allows a league-high 78.7 per contest while the Pioneers score 72 per night on 45 percent shooting, second-best in the conference, and allow 78.3 per game. The Yellow Jackets are also aided by the top 3-point shooting percentage in the HCAC at 37 percent and average over nine makes per night.

The Yellow Jackets hope to have the HCAC's top scorer, Marell Jordan, back on the floor on Saturday after he missed Wednesday's one-point loss against Bluffton. Sophomore Landen Swanner stands as the only player to start every game for Defiance and is coming off a 23-point outing from Wednesday night. Te Jones is also coming off another double-digit scoring performance of 13, his eighth of the year of the Yellow Jacket bench.

Transylvania features four players averaging double digits led by junior Jaylan Green at 13.8 per game following a game-high 24 in their most recent win over Earlham. Colby Napier follows up with 11.3 thanks to a team-best 22 3-pointers, just ahead of Green's 18 makes from downtown. Sophomore forward Hunter Penn is third in the HCAC in rebounding at 8.8 per game and is posting 10.9 per contest. 

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