Wabash erased a seven-point second half deficit to claim a 66-62 North Coast Athletic Conference road victory against Denison University.
 
The Little Giants trailed 40-33 with 14:34 left in the game. Senior Kasey Oetting sparked a 27-7 run by connecting on a pair of three-point shots and a left-side layup to put Wabash up 41-40. Kyle Aiton took over the scoring next with his own eight-point run, hitting back-to-back treys before driving for a layup to put Wabash in front by five. Daniel Scofield, Marcus Kammrath, Zach Patton, and Oetting added baskets down the stretch to boost the lead to 13 points with 3:50 left to play.
 
"We got contributions from a lot of different places," Wabash head coach Kyle Brumett said. "They (Denison) did a great job on Daniel (Purvlicis) today. We just had a bunch of different guys step up. Houston Hodges was really good off the bench for us in the second half. Kyle (Aiton) made some big shots after struggling early. Kasey (Oetting) was awesome during that stretch. Zack Patton had a really good stretch for us on the glass and defensively and got a few buckets. Kammrath gave us really good minutes. Scofield battled for us inside. This was absolutely a team win."
 
Denison's John Cheng scored five straight points followed by a three-pointer from Briggs King to trim the advantage to six points with 38 seconds left to play. Aiton and Austin Burton hit three free throws in the finals seconds to secure the four-point win.
 
The Big Red defense worked to keep the basketball out of the hands of Wabash offensive leader Daniel Purvlicis. The junior entered the game averaging 17.9 points as the second-leading field goal shooter in Division III at 71.3 percent. Purvlicis finished with one point from the free throw line and missed his only shot attempt, which came early in the contest.
 
Wabash dominated the glass, particularly on the offensive end of the floor. The Little Giants out-rebounded Denison 41-30 and grabbed 16 offensive boards. Scofield led the team with 13 boards including eight on the offensive end.
 
"We did some really good things after the offensive rebounds," Brumett said. "We made them guard us again, got fouled and went to the free throw line. It's been a while since Daniel (Scofield) dominated the glass like he did tonight.
 
"The thing that I was most happy with in both halves was that instead of panicking at any point we just kept feeling them out. We got behind a little bit but we just kept playing. I thought in the second half when Denison built its lead our guys just kept trying to stick to the plan. Then we got it even and it was back and forth. Our demeanor did not change. We were not crushed by a basket when we know we did a good job. That's really satisfying for a coach."
 
Aiton led Wabash with 19 points. Oetting scored 13, and Burton finished with 10. King paced Denison (8-5, 2-4 NCAC) with 14 points. David Meurer, John Cheng, and Matthew Bauer each scored 10 points. Meurer, the Big Red's leading scorer entering the game, was held to two points in the second half.
 
The victory puts Wabash (9-4, 4-2 NCAC) in sole possession of third place in the conference standings. The Little Giants will play host to first place Ohio Wesleyan University (11-2, 6-0 NCAC) Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Chadwick Court.