The Wabash basketball team jumped past Thanksgiving, nearly coming up with an early Christmas present Tuesday night against the third-ranked Hanover College Panthers. The Little Giants lost 66-63 to one of the preseason favorites to win the NCAA Division III national title.
Wabash trailed the entire first half, thanks in part to frigid shooting from the field. The Little Giants would connect on only eight shots in the first 20 minutes, shooting 35 percent. But the free throw line proved to be a friend to Wabash and a foe to Hanover all game long. The Little Giants hit 6-of-8 charity tosses in the opening period to keep within five points of the Panthers at halftime.
The Little Giants would fall behind by as many as nine points in the first two minutes of the final period before mounting a run. For the second time in as many games, Wabash mounted a comeback behind the scoring of senior guard David Wagner (Belleville, IL/Belleville) (left).
Trailing by seven, Wagner put a driving layup home to trim the Hanover lead to 34-29 early in the second period. After a defensive stop at the other end of the floor, junior Kyle Medeiros (Indianapolis, IN/Ben Davis) found Wagner just outside the left elbow. Wagner drained a three-pointer, scoring three of his eight points in the game, to make it a two-point game. Medeiros came up with a steal, leading to free throws by Caleb Lyttle (Sullivan, IN/Sullivan). The junior forward hit one of two from the line, making it a one-point contest. After Hanover’s Ben Lye hit one free throw on the next offensive trip, one of only five made free throws by the Panthers, senior Nate Bell (Ft. Wayne, IN/Concordia Lutheran) (below right) tied the game with a jumper in the lane. Freshman Gary Simkus (Highland, IN/Highland) completed a 12-1 Wabash run with a tip-in of his own miss to give the Little Giants a 37-35 lead.
The two teams traded seven leads and six more ties down the stretch before two free throws by Bell gave the Little Giants a 57-56 lead with 2:52 showing on the game clock. The Panthers would answer with a three-pointer by Nate Minyard and would never trail again in the game. A free throw by Wagner cut the Hanover lead to one, but the Panthers got a wide-open layup on a quick inbound pass to move in front 61-58. A missed shot by Wabash forced the Little Giants to foul. The Panthers’ Matt Moore hit one of his two free throws for a four-point lead with 31 seconds left in the game.
Wabash missed a trey to try and cut the lead to one, but an immediate foul by the Little Giants resulted in a missed free throw by Hanover. Medeiros grabbed the rebound, raced to the opposite end of the floor and drained a layup to make it a 62-60 contest in favor of Hanover. But the Panthers answered with a long pass to a wide-open Ben Lye, who layed the ball in for a 64-60 lead.
Wabash wasn’t done, though. The Little Giants took the inbound pass with six seconds left and found sophomore Matt Shook (Kendellville, IN/East Noble), who slammed home a bank-shot three-pointer from the top of the key to make it a one-point game with five second remaining.
This time Hanover would hit both free throws by Brian Chrin. Shook got one more look to try and tie the game, but his half-court three at the buzzer fell off to the left side of the basket, ending the Wabash hopes for an upset win.
"We didn’t make some defensive stops that we needed in the final minutes," said Wabash head coach Mac Petty. "They got too many layups at the end. We cant’ have a team shoot 58 percent from the field in the game and expect to win."
"We played hard, we just have to play smarter. They got to a lot of loose balls. We need to be more alert."
Shook led the Little Giants with 17 points. Medeiros had 11. Bell and junior guard Adonis Joseph (Mishawaka, IN/Mishawaka) (left) each added 10 points. Bell added five rebounds to lead the Little Giants.
Lye and Chrin each scored 17 points to lead the Panthers. Lye went 8-of-10 from the field and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. North Montgomery product Brice Murphy was 1-of-3 from the field for two points in 11 minutes of action.
Wabash, 2-1 on the season, travels to Franklin College for a 3 p.m. tipoff Saturday.