Gehlhausen leads second half surge but Alma holds off Jackets, 84-75

ALMA, Mich. – Will Gehlhausen bolstered the Defiance Yellow Jackets offense with 29 points and led a valiant second-half comeback, but the Alma Scots held on to claim an 84-75 victory at Art Smith Arena on Saturday.

The momentum shifted from one side to the other like a wave over the entire 40-minute contest, beginning with Alma carrying a 21-2 lead through the game's first 11 minutes. After playing relatively score-for-score to close the first half and the start of the second, the Yellow Jackets (1-8, 0-3 HCAC) caught fire down the stretch. During a span of just over 10 minutes, the Yellow Jackets went 15-for-19 with eight 3-pointers to cut a 29-point deficit down to three.

DC outscored the Scots (5-4) 50-38 in the second half and scored their most points in any half of basketball this season. The loss for Defiance is the team's sixth in a row despite scoring a season-high 75 points during the team's last regular season non-conference matchup.

TURNING POINT

Alma clutched to a 78-75 lead with just over three minutes to play and extended their lead by 4-for-4 on two pairs of free throws before taking a timeout with 1:44 left in the game. The Yellow Jackets were looking to keep the pressure on after an offensive rebound by Jeffrey Smith, but Alma forced a turnover and got a friendly bounce for a second-chance layup on their end after a miss in transition to seal the nine-point victory.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Alma built a 21-2 lead over the first 9:21 of the contest on 9-for-15 shooting. Defiance started the game 1-for-13 and committed five turnovers. During that opening stretch, all 12 Yellow Jacket misses were part of one-and-done possessions. 

Sophomore forward Cam Martin straightened out the Yellow Jackets by scoring six straight points in a minute. Following a Ried Jury steal on the defensive end, Landen Swanner pushed the ball ahead to Martin for an authoritative transition dunk with 8:41 left in the half to snap a near 10-minute drought without a field goal. Martin collected a layup the next time down the court and was found inside by Swanner again with 7:43 left in the half to get DC within 15.

After Swanner hit a mid-range jumper to make the score 27-11 with 6:12 to go, Alma caught another wave over the next two minutes. The Scots' Paul Gadde canned three treys during that span to fuel a 13-0 Alma run while four straight Defiance possessions ended in turnovers. Alma claimed the game's biggest lead with 4:07 left in the half with a 40-11 advantage.

The Yellow Jackets closed the half on a high note, hitting each of their last five attempts including four 3-pointers from the trio of Gehlhausen, Sherod Brooks and Jakob Trevino. The first half ended with Defiance on a 14-6 scoring advantage while Alma's lead stood at 21 points, 46-25.

After making the team's first bucket of the game, Gehlhausen set the tone for DC's feverish second half with a 3-pointer. After playing even basketball through the first four minutes of the half, the two squads went back and forth with four straight makes from 15:37 to 13:13 remaining. Swanner and Martin hit buckets inside the arc before Brooks and Gehlhausen sank treys on the last two scores of the rally while Alma converted three layups and a triple. Despite all the excitement, the Alma lead remained at 20 points with 13 minutes to play.

DC turned on the jets with a flurry of 3-pointers to make up that ground in a hurry. Devin Goodwyn buried a triple at the 12:14 makr to cut the lead down to 64-48. The 3s continued to rain down for the Yellow Jackets as Gehlhausen sank the team's next attempt to pull within 15, then Goodwyn and Gehlhausen swished one more apiece the next two trips up the floor to make it an 11-point game. 

After Gehlhausen turned a steal into a layup to climb within single digits with 9:06 left in the game, Defiance made 10 consecutive field goal attempts with six 3-pointers while five different players scored. The streak was snapped on a triple try by Brooks, but the Jackets held on to the offensive rebound and Gehlhausen launched a 3-pointer and connected with 8:32 left for his last score of the game. Alma started to see some baskets fall but Defiance answered each one, including a big trey from Brooks with six minutes left to bring the Yellow Jackets to within three.

Both squads finished with better than 50 percent shooting for the game. The Yellow Jackets shot a season-best 54 percent and matched a season-high 13 3-pointers. Alma made six long-range buckets and shot 58 percent from the floor, the best by a DC opponent this year. Defiance committed just six turnovers in the second half after a dozen during the first 20 minutes.

BRINGING THE STING

• Will Gehlhausen delivered his signature game in purple and gold to date with a career-best 29 points. The sophomore from Norwalk scored 21 points in the second half and went 11-for-14 from the floor. He set team individual game highs in points, field goals, and 3-pointers with seven makes on the afternoon. Gehlhausen also made his first career start for the Yellow Jackets.
• Grand Rapids native Cam Martin turned in a career-best eight points during the trip to his home state.
• Fairview product Jeffrey Smith recorded a team-best seven rebounds, doubling his season total in one contest. Smith also dished out a pair of assists and scored a pair of crucial baskets at the tail end of DC's second-half surge.
• Sherod Brooks was the only other Yellow Jacket to find double figures with an even 10 points and a team-best four assists. Brooks sank three treys, a new career-best. 
• Defiance's top two scorers on the season, Landen Swanner and Devin Goodwyn, each finished with eight points.
• Jordyn Jury also made his first start of the season and scored on an early free throw. 
• Ried Jury popped off the bench and scored a season-best four points to go with one assist and one rebound.
• Jakob Trevino returned to the lineup after missing last week's game due to illness and scored his first points of December with a second-half 3-pointer.

UP NEXT

Defiance's next two games will be exhibitions against Division-I programs before returning to regular-season action at home on December 30. On Monday, the Yellow Jackets travel to Athens to battle the Bobcats of Ohio University. Tipoff at the Convocation Center is scheduled for 7 p.m.

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