Box Score Wabash never trailed in the first 23 minutes of Wednesday night's home basketball contest versus its arch-rival, DePauw University. However, visiting point guard Michael Wilkison was too much to handle and led the Tigers to a comeback victory, 70-60.
 
Wilkison scored a game high 26 points on 8-of-11 shooting in the North Coast Athletic Conference contest.

View photos from the game here, here, here, and here.
 
"There was an out-of-bounds play where he got switched off and somebody lost him," Wabash forward Daniel Purvlicis explained. "There was another time the ball got tipped up and everyone was collapsing to get the rebound. He ended up with the ball on the three-point line and hit that one, then they ran two or three plays for him that they did pretty well. He's a good shooter and he's going to put those down if you give him the chance."
 
Wilkison scored 10 in the first half while his teammates shot a combined 5-of-19. Wabash ended the first half leading 26-23. Other Tigers stepped up in the second frame while Wilkison continued his hot shooting.
 
"I think our defense was there (in the second half)," Coach Antoine Carpenter said. "What happened was they continued to score points off our turnovers and we allowed them to get some easy buckets. They also scored a lot of points from the free-throw line."
 
DePauw (12-4, 7-2 NCAC) converted 11 Wabash turnovers into 19 points and made 24-of-30 free throws. Wilkison arched in a three pointer at the 17:03 mark in the second half to give the Tigers their first lead, 30-29. The Little Giants responded with an 8-0 run, but DePauw had one more answer.
 
The Tigers forced a 14-point swing and kept the Little Giants at arm's length over the final 8 minutes.
DePauw center Tommy Fernitz scored 10 of 14 points in the second half. The 6'9 junior entered the game averaging a double-double.
 
"Our big guys weren't getting too much help from guys on the outside because they had so many shooters," Purvlicis said. "(Pete) Nicksic, (Marcus) Kammrath, and (Daniel) Scofield did a good job on him. But there were some times where guards were getting into the middle of the lane and he was getting a nice layup, and that's where he got a lot of his points."
 
DePauw also posed a problem by playing four guards with Fernitz. The Tigers stretched the floor around the big man, and Carpenter elected to stay with his regular lineups.
 
"Going into the game, it was going to be a chess match," Carpenter said. "Purvlicis, (Andy) Walsh, or Kasey (Oetting) had to get out and guard on the perimeter and I thought they did a nice job doing that tonight."
 
Kyle Aiton followed up a career-high 24 points against Kenyon on Saturday with 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting versus DePauw. Purvlicis scored 9 points and had 8 rebounds. Austin Burton also tallied 9 and Nicksic registered 7.
 
Wabash (4-11, 3-6 NCAC) will play host to Oberlin College Saturday at 1 p.m.