Brown erupts in second half as Jackets fend off PSU Shenango

DEFIANCE, Ohio – The Defiance Yellow Jackets tallied a second consecutive win with a tightly contested 62-57 victory over the Penn State Shenango Nittany Lions at the Karl H. Weaner Center on Tuesday.

Despite losing the turnover and rebounding margins, the Yellow Jackets (2-1) turned in their best defensive performance of the young season and made several timely plays to quiet the Nittany Lions (1-2), who were coming off a 105-point performance in their last contest. The win for DC awarded the Yellow Jackets their first winning record since ending the 2021-22 regular season at 11-10 and surpassed last season's win total in just the third game.

The first half started out slow with both teams struggling to fill the cup. PSU Shenango shot just 24 percent before halftime while DC had their lowest-scoring first half of the first week of the year. The Lions held an early 8-3 advantage before Defiance went on a 13-0 charge to grab the upper hand for most of the game. In fact, the Jackets led from the 12:49 mark of the first half until 2:45 left in the contest before prevailing late.

Jalen Brown had an excellent contest and gave the Yellow Jackets a huge boost in the second. After halftime, the freshman guard dropped 16 of his game-high 23 points in the second half. Brown also posted a team-best five assists and five rebounds.

THE TURNING POINT 

Defiance opened up a 10-point lead at the halfway point of the second half. Unable to put the Lions away early, Penn State Shenango went on a 6-0 run with 4:03 left and claimed a 57-56 lead with 2:45 to go. Defiance responded with several big plays to seal the win. With the Nittany Lions driving toward the basket, freshman forward Evan Angstmann batted a shot out of the air to keep the Jackets down by one. On the other end, Evan Park found Angstmann open in the left corner where he drilled a 3-pointer to put the Jackets back on top with 1:25 to play. The Nittany Lions tried to answer with a trey of their own, but Connor Bush deflected the shot on Defiance's next defensive possession. Defiance then had clutch free throws from Brown and Donovan Stone to ice the win.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS 

• Jalen Brown's 23 points were a season-high by any Yellow Jacket through the first three games of the year. 
• Evan Angstmann was 3-for-4 from deep and came up clutch when they were needed. He is the first Yellow Jacket to hit at least three triples in a game this season.
• Connor Bush came up with some big defense when he tallied three blocks and two steals to go with his nine points.
• Donovan Stone had another solid game with seven points, four rebounds and three assists. His two free throws in the closing seconds pushed the basketball game into a two-possession game.
• Freshman Carter Sudhoff added six points off the bench with four boards.
• Defiance's 30-27 lead at halftime was their first halftime lead of the year.
• The team combined for a season-high six 3-pointers, matching their season-opener against Great Lakes Christian.
• The victory evened the all-time series against PSU Shenango, 1-1.

UP NEXT 
The Yellow Jackets begin a series of away games starting on Saturday at Spalding University. Tipoff against the Eagles is scheduled for 3 p.m.

-JACKETS-