RICHMOND, Ind. – The Wilmington College men’s basketball team built a 10-point halftime lead and held off an Earlham comeback for an 85-77 road victory in the Quaker Bowl rivalry Wednesday evening.

“We had a gritty performance by the guys,” WC coach KC Hunt said. “Our guys made some really big shots down the stretch. Will [Patrick], Dae[Shawn Hamilton] and Kevin [Lewis] all made huge plays to close out a tough road win.”

The first half was close fought with Wilmington maintaining a slim lead until opening up the gap with three minutes left in the half. A three-pointer from Colin Myers with 3:17 left in the half gave Wilmington a six-point lead which was extended to 10 by halftime, 44-34.

Earlham tried to mount a comeback in the second half, closing the gap to three points with 2:27 left in the game but Wilmington prevailed with two three-pointers from Will Patrick and a dunk by Kevin Lewis to retain the lead.

Wilmington finished shooting 29-of-59 (49.2 percent) from the field and 8-of-21 (38.1 percent) on three-pointers along with 19-of-30 (63.3 percent) of free throws. Earlham made 28-of-58 (48.3 percent) of field goals including 8-of-16 (50 percent) from behind the arc and 13-from-25 (52 percent) of free throws.

DaeShawn Jackson lead the Wilmington offense off the bench with 18 points shooting two for three on three-pointers, followed by Lewis with 14 points. Defensively Wilmington was lead by Abdul Kanu who had six rebounds and one steal. Will Patrick scored 11 points for Wilmington and Kanu and Myers ended the night with 10 points each.

Earlham’s offense was lead by Blake Bonin scoring 14 points followed by Jamel Barnes and Kenneth Stalling Jr with 11 points.

Wilmington returns to the court Saturday for its Ohio Athletic Conference opener at Heidelberg University starting at 2 p.m.