Wabash used a combination of patience and fast-paced offense along with hard-nosed defense in its 102-63 season-opening win at Boyce College Tuesday night.
 
The Little Giants connected on 13-of-24 three-point shots and dished out 25 assists for the third-best effort in Wabash single-game history. The 13 triples tied for the seventh-most made three-pointers, while the 54.2-percent three-point shooting ranks ninth all time.
 
"We've been talking about our basketball preparation," Head Coach Kyle Brumett said. "Our guys are so good at preparing for all of the other things they have in life --- whether it's class, or internships, or jobs. They just hadn't thought about basketball in those terms. I've been really happy with how they've changed that part of their mental preparation towards the game. They just needed someone to put it in terms that made sense. It also gave them a reason to value their preparation. I thought we did a great job of that tonight."
 
Wabash jumped out to an early 14-6 lead thanks to an 8-0 run. Kyle Aiton and Austin Burton each nailed three-point shots leading up to a Marcus Kammrath layup. The run sparked an eventual 24-point scoring edge for the Little Giants in the first half with a 57-33 edge at halftime. The Wabash bench produced 23 of the 57 first-half points, led by sophomore Gary Ulrich with eight and freshman Jaylen Kimble with seven. Kimble added a six-assist performance in the first half.
 
The Little Giants produced more of the same in the second half. The starting lineup of Kasey Oetting, Daniel Scofield, Daniel Purvlicis, Burton, and Aiton accounted for 35 of the final 45 points in the game for Wabash. Aiton's triple with 9:44 left in the game pushed the advantage to 40. The Bulldogs (1-7) would get no closer than 37 down the stretch as the Little Giants picked up their first victory for Brumett.
 
"We had some very specific things we were trying to do against Boyce, and I thought our guys took what we asked them to do in the scouting report and actually applied it to the game," Brumett said. "They have done that very much. That was a real positive. And we had great effort. It was the first game, the coaches' first game, our first game on the road, and we had to play in a really fun environment in a packed gym. Their fans were really into it. We got in some early foul trouble, but we played through it. We got great minutes from young guys that have never played a college game like Zack Patton and Jaylen Kimble. The whole team looked like what we've been coaching them on in practice. That is really rewarding."
 
Aiton led Wabash with 21 points, including a 5-for-7 effort from three-point range. Purvlicis picked up his first double-double of the season with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Scofield added a double-double as well with 10 points and 11 boards. Burton scored 15 points with a 5-for-6 effort from the field and 3-for-4 from behind the three-point line. Kimble scored seven points and handed out seven assists --- tied for the 12th-most assists by a Wabash player in a single game. Guard BJ Wright paced Boyce with 18 points. Travis Thompson scored 15, while Luke Marshall score 11. Wabash held the Bulldogs to 18-of-57 shooting (31.6 percent) including 7-of-20 from the arc (35 percent).
 
Wabash surpassed the 100-point mark for the first time since a 101-53 victory at Oberlin in 2000.
 
The Little Giants (1-0) head to the Chicago-land area Saturday for a 2 p.m. (CST) tipoff at the Illinois Institute of Technology.