On Wednesday night, the Alma College men's basketball team hosted Defiance College in non-league contest at Art Smith Arena. The game, intense from start to finish, came down to the wire before the Yellow Jackets survived with a 70-68 win over the Scots.

With the defeat, Alma is now 0-3 on the young season, while Defiance improved to 3-0 for 2013-14.

"Even though a loss like this is gut wrenching, the effort tonight was something we can build off of," said Alma Head Coach Sam Hargraves. "We are coming off an incredibly disappointing weekend from an effort and confidence standpoint, so to play as hard as we did and nearly beat a quality team like Defiance is a great way to get things headed in the right direction."

"We are just scratching the surface of what we can do from an execution standpoint, especially on offense", Hargraves continued, "Nice thing is we can't worry about this loss for long as we have two more challenging opportunities at Cathage this weekend."

The first half was a back and forth battle with neither team being able to pull away in the early going. A jumper by Sr. G Brandon Krause (Sanford/Meridian) gave the Scots the 24-19 advantage at the 8:41 mark and Alma was able to hold on to that slim lead for a majority of the first half. The Yellow Jackets cut the lead to 29-27 with just under five minutes remaining in the half but the Scots were able to extend the advantage to seven at the 2:45 mark thanks to a free throw by So. G Tyler Walden (Perrinton/Fulton). The Scots pushed the lead to eight in the closing moments of the half and went into the locker room up 39-31.

Alma kept up the pressure in the second half and looked to put Defiance away early. Fr. G Chase Fairchild (Rockford/Rockford) knocked down a three at 18:05 to put the Scots up nine at 42-33. Two free throws by So. G Scott Nikodemski (Rockford/Rockford) pushed the lead to 11 (50-39) before the Yellow Jackets strung together a 10-0 run to come within one at 50-49 with just under 12 minutes to go. Both teams would trade leads for the remainder of the half, with neither team being able to get ahead more than three points. A free throw put Defiance up 70-68 with just 19 seconds remaining in regulation. After a string of timeouts called by both teams, Sr. F Isiah Law (Grand Haven/Grand Haven) drove down the lane with only seconds remaining and got fouled on a lay up. Law stepped to the line with a shot to tie the game with two free throws but was unable to convert the first of the one-and-one and the Yellow Jackets secured the rebound to seal the 70-68 victory on the road.

Krause led the way for the Scots, pouring in a game-high 22 points (11-of-17) while adding two assists. Off the bench, Law went 7-of-10 from the floor to finish with 14 points and Fr. C Quinton Cook (Ortonville/Ortonville-Brandon) had a team-high seven rebounds in 16 minutes played.

Bernard Edwards paced the Yellow Jackets attack with 20 points and four rebounds, while Mason Roth chipped in with 14 points and eight boards on Wednesday night.

The Scots take the court again on Nov. 22-23, as they travel to Carthage College (WI) to participate in the Carthage Tournament.