January 6, 2001


The Bluffton College men's basketball scored 54 points in the second half Saturday afternoon, but it did little to dent the offensive machine of Defiance College as the Yellow Jackets walked away with a 117-91 victory in Founders Hall.

Defiance shot 63% from the floor in the first half on their way to a 53-37 halftime lead, then scored 64 points in the second half to improve to 6-6 overall and 1-1 in the Heartland Conference. Bluffton sees their record slip to 8-4 overall and 0-2 in the HCAC.

Four players hit for double figures for Bluffton, led by senior Chad Cramer (Bellevue) with 19 points, eight rebounds and a team-high four assists. Junior Rod Overmyer (Payne/Wayne Trace) scored 18 points, while junior Travis Elsass (Wapakoneta/Jackson Center) netted 16 points and grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds. Senior Ben Coole (Butler/Clear Fork) chipped in 10 points.

Bluffton took an 11-9 lead with four minutes gone by in the game and then tied up the score at 23-23 with 10:04 left in the first half, but it would be all the closer that the Beavers would get in the contest. An 11-1 Defiance run just before halftime sent the visitors up by 16 points at the intermission, and the Yellow Jackets opened the second half with a 12-2 run to go up by 26 points.

Four Defiance players also hit for double figures, led by Gavin Sever with a game-high 24 points that included five 3-pointers. Marcus Alexander scored 19 points on 9-13 shooting, while Eric Viney collected 18 points and tied teammate Frank Kill, who scored 17 points, with a team-high nine rebounds.