DEFIANCE, Ohio – Rose-Hulman completed its first-ever season sweep over Defiance on Saturday, as the Yellow Jackets could not get on track against the league's top-rated defensive unit, falling 70-65 to the Engineers inside the Karl H. Weaner Community Center.
The Engineers entered play holding opponents to just 60.1 points per showing but got an early boost on the offensive end by hitting nine of their first 12 attempts from the field and burying their first five tries from beyond the arc. The early barrage pushed Rose-Hulman to leads of 17-9 and 25-20.
Defiance withstood Rose-Hulman's hot hand and drew even at 28-28, only to see the visitors close the half on a 6-2 spurt and take the 34-30 lead into the half. Rose-Hulman ended the opening 20 minutes with six-of-nine makes from three-point range and a 53.8-percent clip from the field.
The second half opened like the first, with the Engineers finding the target on four of their first six attempts from the field. The quick surge opened a 43-35 edge to match R-H's largest lead of the game with 16:12 to play. Defiance would close to within three on four-straight points from Kevin Tietje and a free throw from Leroy Lewis, but the deficit gradually swelled back to eight with 6:37 left in the game.
The two sides would trade buckets over the next few minutes, with Rose-Hulman keeping the Jackets at bay and maintaining the eight-point cushion at 61-53 with 3:08 showing on the clock. Five-straight from Logan Wolfrum momentarily cut it to 61-58 with 2:01 to play, before a 9-4 rally put DC back down by eight and allowed Rose-Hulman to finish off the 70-65 victory on DC's home court.
The Jackets never led in the game and trailed over the final 23:03, on the way to dropping consecutive home games in league play for the first time since the 2005-2006 campaign.
Wolfrum led all players with 26 points, six rebounds and six assists in 39 minutes for his sixth 20-point game in the last eight contests and his ninth of the year, but DC fell to 3-6 in those games after shooting just 43.8 percent. The Engineers countered by shooting over 50 percent from the floor in both halves and by outscoring Defiance, 26-11, off the bench and 21-6 from downtown.
Kyle Tietje knocked in three of his four shots and ended with eight points, three boards and two steals in only eight minutes of work, while Kevin Tietje and Ryan Hicks combined for seven-of-15 shooting and 16 points.
DC (10-7, 5-5 HCAC) will travel to Anderson (12-5, 8-2 HCAC) on Wednesday, needing a victory to avoid its first three-game skid since dropping nine in a row late into the 2005-2006 campaign.