Box Score Wabash's post-season berth appeared in doubt Saturday afternoon with the Little Giants trailing Oberlin College 51-48 with 13 seconds remaining on Senior Day. Wabash needed a near-miracle shot to force overtime. In stepped freshman Ross Sponsler.

“The play was designed for me to dribble around a ball screen by Walsh,” Sponsler said. “My defender went under the screen so I just stopped and popped.”

View photos from the game here, here, and here.

Sponsler popped the roof off of Chadwick Court when he drained the game-tying three with six seconds left. The Little Giants outscored the Yeomen 13-6 in the extra session and won, 64-57. The victory clinched a North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament berth. The Little Giants will travel to Kenyon College. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.

Wabash split with Kenyon in the regular season. The Little Giants lost at Kenyon 72-55 before defeating the Lords 58-45 at home last Saturday.

“We're 0-0 right now,” Coach Antoine Carpenter said. “This is about to be brand new season. We finished 4-2 in our last six games so we finished pretty strong in that stretch. Now we need to play off how we've been playing and be ready to compete Tuesday.”

Wabash has earned a spot in the tournament every year since joining the NCAC for the 1999-2000 season. Last year, the Little Giants were bounced in the first round by Denison.

The Little Giants' depth overwhelmed the Yeomen late. Wabash played 11 men — 10 of whom registered double-digit minutes — compared to Oberlin's 7 players entered in the game. The Wabash bench outscored Oberlin's 34-4; however, usual starters Houston Hodges, Pete Nicksic, and Andy Walsh combined for 26 of those points after giving way to seniors Evan Johnson, Jordan Surenkamp, and Colten Craigin for the Senior Day start.

“Starting the seniors kind of threw off our rotation,” Carpenter said. “But overall, I'm proud of the toughness they showed. It threw the rotation off rhythm but those guys (starting seniors) got some buckets so I don't think it hurt us point wise.”

Craigin felt comfortable in his new role.

“Part of my role has always been to come in and play with energy whether it's in the second half or at the start of the game,” he said. “I didn't feel like it was different than any other day other than I walked out on the court at the beginning of the game. I am a little upset knowing I won't play here in Chadwick again but I couldn't ask for a better outcome.”

The Little Giants held a four-point advantage at half time, but were sluggish coming out of the locker room. They slothfully wandered through an eight-minute scoring drought and saw their lead morph into a six-point deficit.

“We had our characteristic second-half scoring drought,” Nicksic said tongue-in-cheek. “I didn't finish very well today; I could've done better. I was just trying to take it inside and draw fouls.

“It was a sloppy win but we pulled it off.”

The lethargic second-half came to a thunderous halt at the 8:30 mark. Marcus Kammrath drew a double team on the left block and found a Daniel Purvlicis streaking down the open lane. Kammrath fed him the ball and Purvlicis powered the ball through the hoop on a two-handed slam. He drew the foul and connected on the ensuing free throw, tying the game at 38-38.

“Daniel played a fantastic game,” Carpenter said. “He played 40-plus minutes and he's the only person to start every game for us.”

Purvlicis led all scorers with 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting. Sponsler had 12 and Walsh scored 10. Hodges and Nicksic eached chipped in with 8 points.

Andrew Fox led Oberlin (7-18, 5-11 NCAC) with 14 points followed by Geoff Simpson with 12. Randy Ollie and Emmanuel Lewis scored 10 apiece.