Wabash scored 50 points in the lane Saturday afternoon on the way to a 91-66 victory at Oberlin in North Coast Athletic Conference basketball. The win puts the Little Giants at 12-7 for the season with a mark of 6-4 in NCAC play.
The Little Giants fell behind early, trailing by as many as seven points in the first five minutes of the game. But a full court press by the Wabash defense began to force costly Oberlin turnovers, scoring 35 points off of 22 Oberlin turnovers in the game. The first half defensive pressure led to a 26-8 scoring run by the Little Giants. Wabash pounded the basketball inside repeatedly, getting consecutive three-point-plays from Kyle Medeiros, Andrew Zimmer, and Caleb Lyttle. A layup by Brian Maloney, as part of the Wabash scoring run, tied the game at 18-18 before Jimmy Owens broke the tie with a three-pointer to put Wabash in front for good.
Wabash took a 46-34 halftime lead and stretched it to a 28-point advantage with 5:50 remaining in the contest before settling for the 25-point victory.
Six Little Giants reached double figures in scoring, led by the 19-point effort by Zimmer for his best scoring effort of the season. Lyttle added 14 points, while Gary Simkus came off the bench to score 13. Medeiros added 12 points, with Michael Woods chipping in 11. Maloney scored 10 points.
Wabash was 36-of-62 from the field. While the inside game was dominant, the outside shooting struggled. The Little Giants connected on only four of 22 shots from behind the three-point arc in the contest. Wabash was 15-of-19 from the free throw line.
The Little Giants return to Chadwick Court with a chance to make up some ground in the NCAC standings. Wabash is a game behind Ohio Wesleyan in the latest conference standings, and will face the Battling Bishops Wednesday night in a 7:30 p.m. contest at Chadwick Court.