The Wabash basketball team will have one more home game, thanks to a 66-59 victory by the Little Giants over Earlham College on Wednesday night and a 71-66 loss by Kenyon College at Denison.
The victory means that Wabash would finish no worse than tied for fourth in North Coast Athletic Conference final standings. The Little Giants lead Allegheny College by one game in the conference standings with one game left after the Gators defeated Oberlin 64-63 on Wednesday. Wabash owns the tiebreaker against Allegheny by virtue of a 79-72 victory over the Gators in January.
The Little Giants trailed by six points with 6:48 left in the first half before back-to-back three-pointers by sophomore Adonis Joseph (Mishawaka, IN/Mishawaka) tied the game at 18-18. It would be the last time the Little Giants would trail in the contest. A clutch three by David Wagner (JR/Belleville, IL/Belleville) with the shot clock close to zero put Wabash in front by three. A driving, reverse layup by George Colakovic (SO/Munster, IN/Munster) made it a five-point advantage before a 4-0 run by the Quakers cut the lead to one point. A three-point-play by senior Matt Storm (Anderson, IN/Lapel) helped the Little Giants to a two-point halftime lead after two free throws by Earlham in the closing seconds of the half.
Wabash pushed its lead to five in the first three minutes of the second half, only to see the Quakers cut it to one with 15:16 remaining in the contest. But another Colakovic reverse layup put the Little Giants back up by three, and the free throw after an Earlham foul on the play made it a 36-32 contest in favor of Wabash.
Earlham would trim that lead to two points, but would get no closer. Freshman guard Ronnie Ragains (Fredricksburg, IN/West Washington) scored four consecutive points on a driving jumper in the lane and two free throws, followed by a Storm three and a layup by senior Zeljko Gavranovic (Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina/St. Mary’s, AZ). The Little Giants would push the lead to as many as nine points with five minutes left in the game, then grabbed a ten-point lead with just over a minute remaining to hold on to the victory.
The victory was the first sweep against Earlham since the Little Giants captured two games against the Quakers during the 1999-2000 season.
Joseph led the Little Giants with 16 points. Gavranovic added 10 points and seven rebounds. Storm had nine points in his final regular season game at Chadwick Court. Freshman Ryan Stephens (Zionsville, IN/Zionsville) had eight rebounds to lead Wabash.
Jermaine Crumby, the NCAC Player of the Week, had 23 to lead the Quakers. Markous Jewett added 22 points. Only four Earlham players dented the scoring column, as LaRon Henry had 10 points and Tyler Stewart scored four points.
Wabash (10-14, 8-7 NCAC) will travel to Kenyon on Saturday to finish the regular season. The Little Giants defeated the Lords 70-55 earlier this season. Earlham (9-15, 6-9) remains tied with Kenyon in sixth place in the league standings.