WBB Preview: Women's basketball wraps up string of road games Wednesday at Hiram

DEFIANCE, Ohio — Defiance College's women's basketball team plays their third straight road game on Thursday at Hiram College. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Price Gymnasium.

Tonight's contest is just the sixth meeting all-time between the Yellow Jackets (2-5, 0-3 HCAC) and Terriers (4-3, 0-0 NCAC). Defiance won all three contests between the two in the early 90s and did not square off again until December of 2019. Hiram won that installment, 77-62, before the Terriers took last year's meeting at Defiance in January, 70-69, on a buzzer-beater. Taylor Steinbrunner posted 26 for DC in the loss, which was a career-best for the Beavercreek, Ohio native at the time.

The Yellow Jackets are coming off their second win of the season from Tuesday night, a 67-59 win at Adrian. Kylie Brinkman led the charge with a career-high 18 points for DC. Defiance has had six straight games with a different leading scorer and rebounder. The Yellow Jackets have also hit double-figures from 3-point land in back-to-back games.

DC is scoring 58.9 points per game and shoots 36 percent from the floor with the top team free throw percentage in the HCAC (73 percent). Hiram has a 64.4 points per game average by shooting 35 percent and hits 65 percent of their free throws early in the year. Both squads are pretty sound defensively, coming out on top with a plus-3 turnover margin per contest.

Leaders for Defiance include Steinbrunner's team-best 9.7 scoring average while leading the squad in rebounding at 4.9 per contest. Brinkman now paces the Yellow Jackets in 3-point makes with 11. Defiance also looks to capitalize on balanced scoring once again with eight players currently scoring five points per game or better.

Hiram, meanwhile, sports three players that average double digits. Senior Haley Thompson pours in 18.7 per night followed by 15.6 from sophomore Brooke Hickman and 11.1 more by sophomore Jocelyn Janda. Hickman, a 6-foot-1 center, averages a double-double by pulling in a team-best 12.1 rebounds per game. Janda is the team's top outside threat with 18 of the team's 40 makes from downtown.

From here, DC plays three straight games at home wrapped around Christmas break starting with a Sunday matinee against Wooster.

-JACKETS-