Defiance fades in fourth quarter, Anderson lights it up from long range

ANDERSON, Ind. – Defiance College battled hard with one of the hottest teams in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, but Anderson's outside shooting lifted the Ravens to a sixth straight victory, 87-73, on Wednesday at O.C. Lewis Gymnasium.

The Yellow Jackets (6-8, 1-6 HCAC) trailed 62-59 entering the fourth quarter but the Ravens (9-5, 5-2 HCAC) pulled away by outsourcing DC 25-14 in the final period of a ballgame that featured 26 lead changes and 16 ties.

Defensively, Defiance had the tall task of containing Anderson senior guard Lexi Dellinger, reigning HCAC Player of the Year and the league's leading scorer and 3-point shooter. Dellinger dropped a game-high 37 points with seven made 3-point baskets and 10-for-10 at the free throw line while securing 11 rebounds. It turned out to be her fourth double-double of the season and third game of the year with more than 30 points.

Defiance was paced on a season-best 20 points out of senior Taylor Steinbrunner for the first 20-point performance by a Yellow Jacket this season. Senior Taylor Day pulled in a season-high 13 rebounds for DC to go with six points. Freshman Kalista Friday poured in 17 points for Defiance while Lexie Sparks made it a quartet of players in double figures on a 13-point night for the senior.

Day and Steinbrunner emerged over the final 3:18 of the first half to put an end to a 10-0 run by Anderson to give the Ravens the biggest lead of the first half at 38-29. Day made a layup followed by an Anderson inside score before Steinbrunner hit DC's lone 3-pointer of the first half. Day boarded an Anderson miss and hit a jumper on the other end on a feed from Nicole Sims to trim the lead back to four, but Dellinger answered with her sixth triple of the first half. Day finished the first half with a pair of free throw makes to send the teams to the locker room in a 43-38 ballgame.

Cait Good and Kylie Brinkman each hit 3-pointers around a Steinbrunner layup to start the third to push the Yellow Jackets to within one with an 8-4 run to start the second half. Defiance did not let Anderson get away by more than a handful the rest of the third quarter with a 3-pointer by Friday to bring DC within two points with 2:51 left in the third. Down by four with just over two minutes left, Ali Mowen and Friday connected on back-to-back buckets to tie the game at 57. Sims answered a Ravens score in the final half-minute before Lauren Smith drained a go-ahead triple in the final seconds of quarter three.

Dellinger went to work for Anderson in the fourth quarter by scoring seven of Anderson's first 11 points with three boards in the process. As Anderson built a 10-point lead with just north of five minutes remaining, she took a quick breather before returning to score four more at the free throw line to help close out the victory.

Defiance shot just under 40 percent from the floor for the game and converted just five of 22 3-point tries. Anderson had a proficient second half to finish 49 percent from the floor with over half of their made baskets coming from long range on 15 made 3-pointers on 29 total buckets in the game. The Ravens also hit 14-of-17 free throws compared to DC's 6-for-7 night at the stripe. Virtually every other metric went Defiance's way with the edge in rebounds (40-37), turnover margin (plus-5), points off turnovers (20-13) and points in the paint (42-22).

The Yellow Jackets are back in action on Saturday with a home contest against Miami-Hamilton. The tipoff at the Weaner Center is scheduled for 3 p.m. and will follow the men's HCAC matchup against Rose-Hulman.

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