Box Score Freshman forward Daniel Purvlicis scored a career-high 18 points and junior center Pete Nicksic added 10 to propel Wabash to a 61-59 home court victory over Hanover Monday night.

Purvlicis recorded his second double-double of the season by grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds. His first came in the season-opening loss against Manchester. Wabash scored 38 of its 61 points inside for the contest.

Hanover (5-4) came into the game averaging 76 points a game, but was held to a season-low 59 points by the Little Giants.

The Panthers took an early 4-0 lead before Wabash final got its offense going. Purvlicis scored inside to opening the scoring for the Little Giants before Ross Sponsler added a three-pointer to put Wabash in front by a point.

The two teams battled back and forth throughout most of the first half before Kasey Oetting and Houston Hodges sparked a 5-0 run to put Wabash up 24-18. Hanover rallied to tie the game with 2:38 left in the first period, but Purvlicis took a pass from Oetting and dunked the ball in the final minute, then followed a Hanover three-pointer with a tip-in basket off an Austin Hawn miss just ahead of the buzzer to put the Little Giants up three at the break.

Wabash stretched its advantage to 10 points in the first three minutes of the second half off a three-point play and another tip-in by Purvlicis and a jumper in the lane by Oetting. The Little Giants held a 46-36 lead with 13:43 left to play, but the Panthers took over by posting a 13-3 scoring run to tie the game for the sixth time with 8:55 remaining.

Nicksic broke the tie with a driving layup and drew a foul, but continued a common theme for Wabash on the night by missing a free throw attempt after being fouled on the drive. The Little Giants made just two of their 11 free throw tosses in the contest, but managed to outscore Hanover from the line. The Panthers made their only attempt in the contest late in the second half.

Jordan Surenkamp drilled one of his big three-point shots to stretch the Wabash lead to seven points with four minutes remaining. Hanover responded again to trim the advantage to two points after a three-point play by Desmond Marks and a layup by Ryan Nowicki with 1:15 remaining. A Wabash turnover gave the basketball back to Hanover with 41 seconds left. The Panthers missed a jumper just before the shot clock expired, but grabbed the offensive rebound to set up a final shot attempt. Hanover got the ball inside in the final seconds, but Wabash smothering defense prevented the Panthers from getting the shot away before the final buzzer sounded.

Wabash shot 26-of-52 from the field for 50 percent and hit 7-of-17 three-point shots for 41 percent. The Panthers hit 26-of-68 tries from the field and managed just 6-of-26 three-point attempts. The Little Giants outrebounded Hanover 37-25. Hodges finished with six of Wabash's 17 assists. Purvlicis added four assists, while Oetting had three.

Marks led Hanover in scoring with 13 points. Jacob Steinhart came off the bench to score 10 points.

Wabash improved to 3-5 with the victory. The Little Giants travel to Franklin College on Wednesday. Tipoff is slated for 7:30 p.m.