Daniel Purvlicis dominated inside for Wabash in the Little Giants' 82-59 home victory over Oberlin Saturday.
 
The junior forward tallied a career-best 29 points, hitting 10-of-16 shots from the field while finishing a perfect 9-for-9 from the free throw line. Purvlicis is shooting 67.8 percent from the field, connecting on 40-of-59 attempts through six games. In addition to his 29 points Saturday, Purvlicis snared eight rebounds and handed out a pair of assists.
 
"Daniel plays within himself," Wabash head coach Kyle Brumett said. "I think he's just scratching the surface of his abilities. He doesn't have that 'score, score, score' mentality. And I don't necessarily think he needs it. He can finish in a variety of ways.
 
"Daniel is a scholarship-type athlete with a great touch. A lot of times you'll find guys that are undersized that have a really good touch or you'll find guys that are great athletes that don't have great touch. He's the combination of both. I think within our offense he's going to figure out his role is really big with this group. It's an offensive role. We need him to be aggressive."
 
Wabash never trailed in the contest. The Little Giants forced a turnover on the opening series of the game when Oberlin was unable to get an offensive attempt away before the 35-second shot clock expired. The Little Giants scored immediately on the opposite end of the floor on a Kyle Aiton three-pointer. Wabash stretched the lead to as many as 23 points in the first half before settling for a 40-24 halftime edge.
 
Oberlin (3-3, 1-2 NCAC) used a full-court press to draw as close as 12 points near the midway point of the second half. The Little Giants came back with a 10-0 run over a two-minute period to stretch the lead once more. The Yeomen would get no closer than 19 points on two occasions in the final eight minutes of the game.
 
"Oberlin mixed a lot of things," Brumett said. "They switch things and mix zones. We were probably preparing for more zone defense than we even saw. There was a lot of switching man-to-man.
 
"They did a lot of stuff to keep their true center around the basket. What that created for us today were driving lanes and passing lanes. Once the ball got moved from side to side some holes opened up. I thought our guys did a really good job of playing in those holes either to drive the ball in there and make the play to the next guy or to feed the post in that gap."
 
Aiton scored 13 points in the Wabash victory. Austin Burton added 11 points.
 
Miles Gueno paced Oberlin with 14 points. Jack Poyle scored 13.
 
The Little Giants (5-1, 2-0 NCAC) are tied with Ohio Wesleyan and Allegheny as the only remaining undefeated teams in conference play. Wabash travels to Wooster Saturday for a 2 p.m. contest.