Yellow Jackets drop non-conference road game

DELAWARE, Ohio- The Defiance College women's basketball team traveled to Ohio Wesleyan University on Wednesday night for a non-conference matchup. Defiance suffers a hard-fought 69-56 loss to the OWU Fighting Bishops.

The Yellow Jackets got out to a 13-9 lead before trailing 21-14 after one quarter. In the second period, the Bishops extended their lead, and the Purple and Gold were within five, 33-28, at the intermission.

"We had a tough night from the field and didn't move the ball as well as we could have," Defiance head coach Allan King Jr. said. "Ohio Wesleyan played a good game defensively and changed up their defense a lot, and that threw us off a bit."

Ohio Wesleyan continued to extend the lead, taking a 51-41 advantage at the end of the third quarter. The Bishops took the biggest lead of the night, 68-53, with 54 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Defiance responded, knocking down a three-point field goal, but we unable to combat the deficit suffering a 69-56 loss.

Defiance made 16 of 20 (80 percent) from the free-throw line, compared to 8 of 14 (57.1) for OWU. The Yellow Jackets were outscored 21-6 from beyond the three-point line and were guilty of 18 turnovers to the Bishops' 8.

The Yellow Jacket offensive was led by junior Kalyn Pickens (Fort Wayne, Ind. / R. Nelson Snider) who rounded out the night with a career-high 17 points and 5 rebounds.

"Kalyn Pickens had a really good game," King said. "She attacked the basket and did a good job handling pressure."

Sophomore Taylor Day (West Mansfield, Ohio / North Union) also recorded a double-digit evening with 13 points and 6 rebounds. Freshman Josi Wolf (LaRue, Ohio / Elgin Local) led the Yellow Jackets on the boards recording 7 defensive rebounds and 1 block, while also tacking on 4 points, 2 assists, and 2 steals.

"Being a young team, it was our first time handling back to back games," said King. "Every experience we have with this young group will be the first, and we just have to learn how to handle these situations. We saw some carryover from the emotional win last night, but unfortunately, we were unable to keep it going in the second half."

The Purple and Gold move to a 1-4 overall record on the season. Defiance is back in action Saturday, December 7th as they host Hanover College in an HCAC contest. Tipoff is slated for 1 p.m. in the Karl H. Weaner Center.