A 22-point effort from freshman Chase Haltom highlighted a 15-for-24 shooting performance by the Wabash basketball team Friday's first round of the 15th Pete Thorn Invitational. The Little Giants' 83-51 victory over the University of Cincinnati-Clermont College puts Wabash in Saturday's title game against Olivet Nazarene.
Haltom and the rest of his Wabash teammates dropped shot after shot against the Cougars, cruising to an 18-point advantage at halftime. Haltom missed only three shots in only 17 minutes of action --- and only two of those came from long range. He topped his previous season-best by one point after scoring 21 in a loss to Hanover earlier in the season.
Sophomore Andy Root joined Haltom in double figures with 14, his top scoring effort of the season and his first game in double figures. Root was 5-of-9 from the field and 4-of-7 from behind the arc.
Wabash raced out to a 5-0 lead in the contest, but the Cougars tied the score with five minutes gone in the opening period. After the Little Giants took another five-point lead, Clermont cut it back to one point before Haltom checked into the game and began the shooting exhibition.
Andrew Zimmer actually started the scoring assault with a layup off an Aaron Brock miss and rebound. Haltom hit his first three after Brock grabbed one of his six rebounds, helping the Little Giants to a 15-9 lead. Brock added his own three a minute later to answer a Maurice Brown basket for a seven-point edge on the scoreboard.
The Little Giants led by as many as 14 points before Haltom hit two three-pointers in the final two minutes. Collin Smith fired a three in the last minute of play, along with a layup by Zimmer to send the teams to the locker room at the break with Wabash in front 43-25.
After a sluggish start to the second half, the Little Giants roared to life over the next few minutes of the period. Haltom and Smith drained three consecutive long-range shots to put Wabash up 19 points. The Little Giants took their biggest lead of the contest, 36 points, when Evan Arnold and Justin Froedge completed the three-point attack with their first career baskets in the closing minutes of the contest.
Smith finished with eight points coming off the bench for Wabash. Zimmer had six points and eight boards. Brown led Clermont with 15 points, while Seth Steele added 14 points for the Cougars.
The victory snapped a three-game losing streak in both regular season games this year and in Pete Thorn Tournament action dating back to 2003 for Wabash. The Little Giants will play Olivet Nazarene Saturday at 3 p.m. after the Tigers held on for an 81-76 victory over Marian College in the first game of the evening. Tyler Wallenfang paced ONU with 26 points. Stan Chismark scored 25. Derek James led five Marian players in double-figure scoring with 22 points.
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