WILMINGTON — Wittenberg University ended the first half on a 19-5 run and didn’t trail in the second half to defeat the Wilmington College men’s basketball team 81-61 at Fred Raizk Arena on Wednesday evening.
Neither team separated in the early stages as each time the Tigers looked to go up multiple possessions, the Quakers answered with a triple. An Andrew Clark triple at the 14:04 mark made the score 7-6 while Hunter Prince put the hosts up 12-11 less than two minutes later. Wilmington fought through eight turnovers in the first 12 minutes to pull within five on an Abdul Kanu layup with 5:41 to play, but Wittenberg scored the next 11 points to build a 41-27 edge at halftime.
The Tigers continued that momentum to begin the second half as the visitors opened the period on a 24-11 run to put the game out of reach.
Wittenberg finished 28-of-62 (45.2 percent) from the field to go along with 6-of-16 (37.5 percent) from three-point range and 19-of-24 (79.2 percent) from the free throw line. Wilmington countered with a 23-of-58 (39.7 percent) performance from the field, 4-of-14 (28.6 percent) from distance and 11-of-17 (64.7 percent) from the charity stripe. The Tigers won the rebounding battle 40-36 and held a 17-7 edge in fastbreak points.
Individually, four Tigers finished in double figures with Trey Killens leading the way with 22 points on 7-of-10 from the floor and a perfect 8-of-8 from thre free throw line. Levi Boettcher, Jerry Saunders Jr. and Ethan Connery all had between 11-12 points. Kanu finished with 14 points to lead Wilmington while Obed Achirem had a doble-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds to go along with three steals. No other Quaker finished with more than five points.
Wilmington (3-2) will open Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) play at Baldwin Wallace University on Saturday. Tip-off from Ursprung Gymnasium is scheduled for 2 p.m.
