Wabash cut a pair of Ohio Wesleyan leads to four points in the second half, but could draw no closer before losing to the eighth-ranked Battling Bishops 88-76 in Delaware, Ohio.
 
The Little Giants trailed 39-35 at halftime, but fell behind 55-45 with 12:08 left to play. A three-point play by Ben Stachowski, followed by a three-point shot from the Evansville, Indiana freshman cut the lead to 55-51. Ohio Wesleyan (13-1, 6-1 NCAC) stretched the advantage back to 11 with 8:35 remaining. Wabash used the inside game of Daniel Purvlicis, Evan Frank, and Logan White to trim the lead again before Johnny Jager and Stachowski drew Wabash to within four points once again.
 
The Bishops, ranked eighth in the latest D3hoops.com poll, provided one more run --- an 8-2 effort over a two-minute period --- to once again go up 10 points, this time with 3:54 remaining in the game. Wabash could find no answer this time. The Little Giants fell behind by 14 in the closing minute before a Stachowski layup provided the final differential.
 
Turnovers and the Bishops' transition game prevented Wabash from getting any closer throughout the second period. Ohio Wesleyan converted 16 Little Giant turnovers into 22 points.
 
"Turnovers are such a big part of finishing the run," Wabash head coach Kyle Brumett said. "Even if you don't make shots, you have to make them guard, get some additional fouls off possessions where you get a shot instead of turning the ball over. Your defense will never be set and you can't follow the plan when they're coming at you quickly after a turnover. Too many times in the stretches that got us down and in the stretches where we cut it close we just turned it over too much."
 
Stachowski scored a season-best 22 points coming off the bench. Frank finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. Purvlicis added 14 points and 11 boards for his fifth double-double this year.
 
"Ben filled a big hole tonight as the second perimeter scorer," Brumett said. "The last couple of games Austin Burton gave it to us. Earlier in the season Duncan Roy had a couple of games where he provided that scoring. Ben is capable of scoring in a variety of ways. Since we've gotten him back (from injury), Ben's gotten back into the rhythm of playing when he's tired. He's a good three-point shooter. He just gives us something we need. I thought Evan played great, but I think he and I would both agree that he can still finish at a higher rate.
 
"Right now this team looks to Johnny (Jager) and (Daniel) Purvlicis and expect them to score. We have to become more balanced in scoring as we grow through the season. That was a really exciting part of today, to see more balance. Bottom line we knew we needed to keep them under 80 points. The first half gave us a chance to do that. But too many quick, good shots for them after our turnovers didn't allow us to do that. With all that, I left encouraged. I think we have a recipe and the talent to play with them."
 
Nate Axelrod led OWU with 27 points. Seth Clark chipped in 19 points, while Zak Davis and Ben Simpson each tallied 13.
 
Wabash (8-6, 2-5 NCAC) returns to Chadwick Court Saturday for a 6 p.m. contest against Kenyon College (6-8, 3-4 NCAC).