Defiance overpowered by Rose-Hulman on Saturday

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The Defiance Yellow Jackets were undone by a 17-0 stretch in the first half by Rose-Hulman at Hulbert Arena to fall 85-56 in the program's final road game of the 2022-23 season.

The Yellow Jackets (6-17, 1-15 HCAC) and Fightin' Engineers (14-9, 11-5 HCAC) traded baskets early and DC held leads of 6-5 and 8-7 before DC went scoreless for six minutes during the lengthy scoring run by Rose-Hulman.

Cole Wojciechowski brought DC within one to make the score 10-9 after a made free throw at the 12:45 mark before the team went silent. While the Yellow Jackets committed six turnovers and missed seven shots, Rose-Hulman scored 17 straight points before Jakob Trevino knocked down a 3-pointer to end the rally with 6:31 left before half. Down by as many as 19 in the first half, the Jackets made up some ground over the last five minutes of the half with the help of eight points in the last five minutes by Jake Segulin. 

Both squads shot 40 percent over the first 20 minutes but the difference was six more Defiance turnovers and a minus-10 margin in rebounding to give the Engineers 15 more opportunities to build a 15-point lead at the break.

To start the second half, Rose-Hulman went on a 7-0 run on a 3-pointer, an offensive rebound and putback, and a steal and score in just 1:10 of gameplay to open up a 22-point advantage. Wojciechowski knocked down a jumper and Trevino hit a triple to trim their lead down to 17, but another Miles McGowen score off an offensive rebound led to four more buckets by Rose-Hulman before holding a 23-point lead by the first media timeout of the second.

That lead continued to swell as the home squad hit 58 percent of their second-half shots. For the game, Defiance knocked down 41 percent of their attempts from the floor but was outrebounded 42-27 and turned the ball over 19 times to equate to 71 total Rose-Hulman attempts in the game.

Playing without Marell Jordan for most of the contest, Trevino was Defiance's top scoring threat. The Ayersville grad posted his second-straight career-high game on a 12-point day after setting the previous bar at nine on Wednesday night. Te Jones was the only other Jacket in double figures with 10 points and a team-high four rebounds. McGowen was Rose-Hulman's top bucket maker with 24 points to go with 15 boards, including 11 on the offensive glass. Max Chaplin (16), Willie Bowman (12) and Bradley Harden (10) also hit double figures in scoring for the Engineers.

The 29-point loss for Defiance marked the 13th defeat in league play of 12 points or more and the fifth conference loss of 20 or more points.

Defiance returns home for their final two games of the season on Tuesday and Friday. The Yellow Jackets host Earlham at the Weaner Center on Tuesday night for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.

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