A blistering 75-percent shooting percentage from the three-point put an end to the Wabash basketball team’s hopes for a road conference win on Saturday afternoon. Denison connected on 12-of-16 long range shots to take a 92-86 victory over the Little Giants in North Coast Athletic Conference action.
Despite the excellent three-point shooting by the Big Red, the victory came at the stripe for Denison. For the second consecutive game the Wabash basketball team outscored an opponent from the field, only to be blitzed at the free throw line. The Little Giants hit nine of their 12 charity tosses, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the 28-of-32 shooting from the stripe by the Big Red. Wabash scored 32 baskets and 13 three-pointers, compared to 26 baskets and 12 treys for Denison.
Wabash survived a Big Red’s three-point barrage midway through the opening period that allowed Denison to open up a ten-point lead. The Little Giants drew even after a 11-2 run late in the period. Wabash took the lead back, moving up by three in the closing seconds of the half.
Wabash took a five-point lead to the locker room at halftime when Kyle Medeiros (Indianapolis, IN/Ben Davis) took an inbound pass on the right wing with four seconds left in the period and drained a 15-foot jumper to make it 46-41 in favor of the Little Giants at the break.
Denison, seventh in the conference by shooting just 31.6-percent from behind the arc coming into the game, set the net on fire after connecting on 5-of-8 treys in the opening period for 62.5-percent. Wabash found the shooting surroundings to its liking, as well. The Little Giants went 50-percent from the field in the first half, including 53.8-percent from the three-point arc.
All of Wabash’s first half free throw attempts came on three-point tries. Adonis Joseph (Mishawaka, IN/Mishawaka) scored a four-point play when he canned a three-pointer and hit the free throw after a foul call on the Big Red, and George Colakovic (Munster, IN/Munster) nailed two out of three free throw attempts when he was fouled on a three-point shot.
Denison cut the lead to two points to open the second half by nailing the first three-pointer of the second period, then tied the game with a rebound basket in the second minute of the final period. Wabash answered with a basket by Caleb Lyttle (Sullivan, IN/Sullivan), but back-to-back treys by the Big Red gave them a 52-48 lead.
Another Wabash run, this time a 9-3 run that started at the 15-minute mark, gave Wabash a 57-53 lead.
The two squads battled to a 68-68 tie before back-to-back treys from Clint Shepherd pushed the Denison lead to eight points with 4:55 left in the contest.
Matt Storm (Anderson, IN/Lapel) ended the run with a three of his own to draw Wabash to within five. Two free throws by the Big Red made it an 84-77 contest with 1:34 remaining.
Three free throws by Storm with 44 ticks left on the clock cut the lead to six, then a turnover on the next play by the Big Red set up a Zeljko Gavranovic (Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina/St. Mary’s) three-pointer to make it an 86-83 contest with 31 seconds left in the game. But the Little Giants were forced to foul in the closing seconds, and Denison hit all six free throw attempts to secure its first conference win against Wabash.
Joseph led the Little Giants with 18 points. Storm added 15, while Colakovic came off the bench to score 12. Shepherd had 19 points to lead six players in double-figure scoring for the Big Red.
Wabash falls to 6-9 with the loss, 4-2 in the NCAC. The Little Giants stay in state on Wednesday, traveling to Earlham College for a 7:30 p.m. league game.