Two weeks ago, the Wabash basketball team upset 17th-ranked Ohio Wesleyan to cap a four-game win streak. Three losses later, the OWU victory seems like it was two months ago.

Wednesday night's 67-51 home loss to Wittenberg (7-11, 5-6 NCAC) was marked by poor rebounding. The Tigers won the rebounding battle, 40-30.

"We're a big rebounding team and these guys took it to us on the glass," Coach Kyle Brumett said. "Unfortunately they did that the first time they played us too. Because of that, they go to the line – so many of those offensive rebounds were turned into points."

Brumett noted Wittenberg's 23 second-chance points compared to Wabash's seven.

The game started promising enough for the home team. The Little Giants (11-7, 6-5 NCAC) built an early 13-7 lead with buckets from five different players. However, with the scored tied at 19, the Tigers closed the first half on an 11-2 run marred by two turnovers, four fouls, and a handful of missed shots.

More of the same followed to start the second half as the visitors pushed their lead to 15. A full student section and a crowd of nearly 1,000 had little to cheer.

"You have to put game pressure on teams, especially at home," Brumett said. "The crowd can't get involved when the deficit never cracks 10 points."

Wabash's go-to man Daniel Purvlicis scored 14 points to match Kyle Aiton for team-high honors, but Brumett needed more from the forward.

"I felt like in the last 10 minutes when we couldn't make up ground, he (Purvlicis) went away from wanting it," Brumett said. "Maybe he felt like guys needed to shoot threes, but that's not who we are. We just didn't do a good enough job of getting high-percentage shots."

Wittenberg keyed its defensive game plan on Purvlicis and sent aggressive double teams his way.

"You have to figure out in the first five minutes of the game what their plan is," Brumett said. "Where will the double come from? He either has to score on the catch or get it out of there. When you see those doubles, you better make the ones that are makeable and if you're being doubled and have zero assists, it's a problem because somebody is open."

Kasey Oetting scored 13 points in addition to the 14 from Purvlicis and Aiton. As a team, the Little Giants shot 36.7 percent from the field and just 21.1 percent behind the arc – including misses on their first seven three-point attempts.

Tiger wingman Jaelin Williams led all scorers with 20 points while guard Cody Phillippi tallied 13.

The loss sends Wabash into a third-place tie with Allegheny. With NCAC co-leader Wooster on campus Saturday, the missed opportunities of the last three games left Brumett especially frustrated.

"You have to win that game (at Oberlin) to weather the tough parts of a really hard league," Brumett said. "We don't get that one, then Wittenberg plays well and is really physical and we don't handle it so now we have a three-game losing streak and the best team is coming in on Saturday. It's one of those gut-check moments."

Tip off against the Fighting Scots is Saturday at 2 p.m. in Chadwick Court.