Just as the Little Giants arrived at Livingston Gymnasium, a power outage swept through the towns of Granville and Newkirk in central Ohio. Wabash used the time to stretch from the four-hour bus ride and take one more look at the scouting report on Denison.
"I told them to use this time to get themselves mentally ready to play Denison," said coach Mac Petty. "We have no control over the circumstances, but we can control the way we react to the circumstances."
After taking a 37-34 halftime lead, the Little Giants tried to pull away from Denison, taking a 55-48 lead over the Big Red on the fourth three-pointer by freshman Matt Storm (Anderson, IN/Lapel) of the game. But the Big Red cut into the Wabash lead and went in front 70-68 before Joe DesJean (Indianapolis, IN/Perry Meridian) scored on a jumper from the left side of the floor to tie the score.Baskets from Pleas Ferguson (Indianapolis, IN/Arsenal Tech) and Brendan O'Hara (Indianapolis, IN/Brebeuf Jesuit) put Wabash in front by one in the final minute of regulation, and DesJean dunk gave the Little Giants a three-point lead with 26 seconds remaining. A three-pointer by Denison's Tony Price with three seconds left sent the game into the extra period.
The overtime period saw Wabash put good defensive pressure on the Big Red. The Little Giants allowed only eight shots to be taken by Denison, keeping the Big Red from getting an open look at the three-point shots they had fired all afternoon. The Little Giants put the game away at the free throw line as Ferguson and DesJean put Wabash in front by three with one minute left in the game. A final layup by Storm after he stripped the ball away from the Big Red at the defensive end of the floor and two key free throws by Ryan Short (Indianapolis, IN/Perry Meridian) in the final seven seconds of the game gave the Little Giants their first North Coast Athletic Conference win of the season.
"We did the things today that we've talked about all season long," said Petty. "We kept the turnovers down, played good defense, and got good scoring from several areas."
Wabash got double-figure scoring from four of the five starters. Ferguson led the way with 20 points, while Storm and Short both had career highs in scoring with 17 points each. DesJean added 16 points, nine rebounds, and four blocked shots to the winning effort.
Wabash has won two of its last three contests to move to 2-6 for the season, 1-1 in the NCAC. The Little Giants will take some time off around the Christmas holiday before traveling to Chicago to play in the Elmhurst College Holiday Tournament on December 29-30.