Jackets Escape N. Manchester with Overtime Win

N. MANCHESTER, Ind. – Defiance got all it could handle from a hot shooting Manchester squad on Wednesday, but rallied from a nine-point deficit at the half to earn the 79-71 win in overtime. The comeback victory puts the Jackets on the cusp of their 25th conference championship in program history.

DC now leads the Heartland Conference with an 11-2 record and holds a two-game lead over Transylvania with three games remaining in the regular season. Defiance can clinch its first HCAC Championship since the 2000-2001 campaign with a victory over the Pioneers on Saturday.

If the Yellow Jackets entered play on Wednesday with an eye on Saturday’s key matchup, the Spartans quickly served notice that they had every intention of playing the role of the spoiler.

Manchester connected on four of its first six three-point attempts and surged to a 17-10 lead behind a trio of long-range daggers from Mitch Schaefer. Defiance punched back with a Heath Armstrong trey and mounted a 9-0 rally to claim the 19-17 advantage.

The lead would be short lived for DC, as the Spartans capitalized on a wave of Defiance turnovers and drained three more shots from beyond the arc to storm out to a 35-26 lead at the intermission.

Manchester finished the opening stanza with seven makes from deep in only 10 attempts and was led by 15 points from Schaefer. The Jackets struggled to handle the ball in the first 20 minutes, committing 12 miscues to fuel the MC attack.

The second half provided even more fireworks and opened with a 16-0 spurt from Defiance to give the Jackets control at 42-35. Pettaway scored 11 points during that streak, including nine in a row at one point, before Armstrong capped the rally with a three.

The Spartans took the HCAC-leading Jackets’ best shot and refused to buckle, eventually responding with a 6-0 run of their own to trim to the gap to 47-44 with 12:13 remaining in the game.

C.J. Johnson quieted the Manchester crowd with back-to-back threes to push the spread back to nine. Johnson then stopped another Spartan rally, answering a 5-0 string with five-straight points of his own to lift DC to the 60-51 lead with 6:34 to play.

The lead remained at nine at the 5:40 mark before Manchester managed to mount one final rally. Jake Koziel got it started with a conventional three-point play and followed that up with another layup. Schaefer then scored eight-straight points of his own on two more threes and a jumper, capping a 13-0 Spartan attack and putting Defiance in a 66-62 hole with just over two minutes left in the game.

A pair of Anthony Jackson free throws stopped the bleeding and a Bryan Post steal led to a pair of game-tying free throws from Johnson with 1:18 remaining. Yet another swipe by Post gave DC the ball with chance to win in regulation, but attempts from Johnson and Jackson were off the mark and DC settled for overtime.

The Jackets started the extra period in similar fashion to how they opened the second half, tallying the first six points to grab a 72-66 advantage. This time Manchester had no answer and Defiance pulled out the 79-71 victory.

Pettaway ended the night with 27 points and 15 rebounds for his fourth-straight game with at least 20 points and 10 boards. Johnson turned in 13 of his 18 points after the break and Post came away with five points, nine rebounds and four steals.

Defiance improves to 16-6 overall and 11-2 in league play with the win and will have a chance to claim the HCAC regular season crown on Saturday when its hosts Transy (14-8, 9-4 HCAC) at 3:00 pm.