MBB Preview: Defiance travels to Earlham hungry for first conference win
DEFIANCE, Ohio – The Defiance College Yellow Jackets hit the road to Richmond, Ind. to play the Earlham College Quakers in Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference play on Wednesday night. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Druley Performance Gym with live video and stats available.
DC looks to avoid another Wednesday night heartbreaker in search of the program's first win within the HCAC this season. Starting two weeks ago, the Yellow Jackets lost by one in the waning moments at rival Bluffton before falling on a 30-footer at the horn in double overtime at home against Anderson last Wednesday night.
Defiance has lost five in a row after clawing back to the .500 mark before the end of the 2022 calendar year and stands 5-10 overall, 0-8 in the HCAC. Earlham stands 2-13 with one league win over Bluffton. The matchup marks the last school to play in the conference before the schedule rolls back around for a second trip through the league.
The Yellow Jackets will look to sharpen up defensively as they enter the contest allowing 79.2 points per game, the most in the HCAC. DC has struggled to defend the 3-point shot in games that have gotten out of hand while Earlham made a season-best 14 treys to beat Bluffton last weekend. Earlham is giving up 74.1 points per game, ranking sixth defensively in the conference.
Offensively, Defiance scores 70.4 per game and Earlham checks in with a 65.1 point scoring average. The Yellow Jackets are the top 3-point percentage team in the conference at 37.7 percent and the Quakers are letting opponents shoot 43 percent from outside, the highest average in the HCAC. Defiance also ranks second with a 71.3 team free throw percentage.
Yellow Jacket senior Marell Jordan continues to lead the HCAC in scoring at 19.5 points per game. Earlham is led by senior Jaden Terry, who ranks third in the conference with 17.6 points per game. Terry also leads the Quakers in rebounding average at 5.6 per game while Jordan's team-high average is 5.2. Defiance has a tandem of 3-point shooters with sophomore Landen Swanner knocking down eight treys in his last two games to combine for 40 points joined by senior Jerome Johnson's HCAC-best 48.9 percentage from outside the arc.
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