Wabash led from start to finish in a 63-49 road win at Allegheny to sweep a weekend series of North Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball games.
 
The Little Giants dominated the inside game, scoring 28 points in the lane. Wabash grabbed 18 offensive rebounds, converting those extra opportunities into 20 points.
 
"Inside scoring and second-chance baskets were huge, especially considering both teams were playing on such short rest," Wabash head coach Kyle Brumett said. "Those are rebounds and points that break your back both physically and mentally. You give up some of those and you just feel like it's going to be a long game. I thought our guys right from the tip were going to the glass. There was no point where they were checking us out. We were making moves to the offensive boards. We talked a lot about that --- don't just be big, be a rebounder. Make a move.
 
"I thought (Marcus) Kammrath) gave us a really big lift with that. Zack Patton was really good on the glass in his time. Just having (Daniel) Purvlicis and Kasey (Oetting) at their positions provides more size and more athleticism than most teams. It's a real advantage for us. "
 
Marcus Kammrath continued his strong offensive showing for Wabash over the weekend. One day after scoring a game-high 16 points in the Little Giants' 73-72 win at Hiram he notched a team-best 14 points to go with 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Daniel Purvlicis added 13 points along with a career-best 19 rebounds for his third consecutive double-double.
 
"Marcus had a great weekend," Brumett said. "We felt like we could get good production out of him, but we might not have known for how long when you're talking about back-to-back games and playing close to 30 minutes in both games. It's more than he's been asked to do.  He's battled a lot of foul trouble this year. He's trying to figure out what he can do and where his strengths are. I thought this weekend was a really positive for his confidence. Hopefully it's something he can build on and we can continue to get more and more out of him.
 
Wabash scored the first two baskets of the game off inside shots by Purvlicis and Kammrath. The Little Giants built the lead to as many as 14 points. Wabash survived a late rally by the Gators near the end of the first half before taking a 32-27 halftime edge.
 
The Wabash lead was trimmed to four twice after building it to eight points in the final period. The Little Giants looked inside once again to Kammrath and Purvlicis for baskets to push the advantage back to double digits for the final nine minutes of the game. 
 
The Little Giants shot 35.9 percent from the field (23-of-64) and outrebounded Allegheny 54-35. The Gators shot just 29.5 percent from the field (18-of-61) including 3-of-22 (13.6 percent) from three-point range.
 
Evan Zabriski scored 16 points to pace Allegheny (10-11, 7-7 NCAC) with half of his total coming from the free throw line. Josh Valentic added 11 points.
 
Kasey Oetting scored 12 points and Austin Burton added 10 to give the Little Giants their third win in as many games after snapping a three-game losing streak. The win keeps Wabash in third place one game ahead of DePauw in the NCAC standings.
 
"If you back up to the three-game losing streak, having to play Wooster followed by this trip and then another trip to Ohio Wesleyan on Wednesday looked so daunting," Brumett said. "It was such a scary trip on our schedule. Anytime you're coaching a team through a long season in a league as good as ours, you're concerned about having a two- or three-game stretch in the conference season where you struggle to play well.
 
"We played so well today against Allegheny. It wasn't well as far as guys making all their shots. We went in to halftime shooting under 40 percent. We had a lead and kind of let that lead get away from us. We're a big, physical, defensive team. We need to be able to grind teams that are like us. It was just really rewarding to be able to play that way and the guys to feel how successful they can be making a defensive stand. We're really happy with the weekend."
 
Wabash travels to conference-leading Ohio Wesleyan for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.