Our Transylvania Pioneers Men's basketball team continued their hot start to the year by heading up to Ohio, taking on the Defiance College Yellow Jackets. In the first away game of 2023 the men beat Defiance 76-62 with continued leadership from Junior guard, Jaylan Green. This comes after a win against Earlham last game at the Beck Center where Green was coming off a 24 point performance.
In the first half the Pios shot well connecting on 58% of their shots and just shooting under 40% from 3. Playing with high energy the Pios were again able to make plays and score points by getting multiple people involved in the offense. A total of 11 Pioneers throughout the game scored which really shows how our players are letting the ball do the work and find each other in their spots. Going into halftime Transy led 47-31 where Green had already racked up 12 of his 14 of the afternoon.
The second half we got to see the continuation of a high functioning Transylvania defense. In our previous games the second half has been a consistent jumping off point to hard nose and high effort defense. Our Pios held Defiance to under 40% from the field the whole game and picked up most of their steals in the second, outsourcing on second chance points and fast break points. The ability to hold opponents to such numbers stems from the involvement of multiple players who come in ready to contribute and play hard until they are subbed out. Effort along with more fantastic free throw shooting allowed the Pioneers to extend their lead to 14 where they ended the game at.
After the game Head Coach Brian Lane had this to say with the win in hand:
"We found out this week there are still a lot of areas we can still improve in. We need to continue to build on our positive momentum as we return home for a midweek game versus MSJ"
Coach couldn't be more right and seems to have fantastic vision for the rest of the season looking to continue this win streak January 11th in Lexington Ky, at the Clive M Beck Center.
For more information on Transylvania men's basketball, follow @TransyHoops on Twitter.
