Wabash could not withstand a late run by Kenyon Saturday afternoon that led to an 82-76 road loss for the Little Giants to close out the regular season.
 
The loss came less than three days after a 114-110 triple overtime defeat at arch-rival DePauw. If the Little Giants could have posted victories in their last two games, the team would have tied for fourth in the final league standings.
 
Wabash led 58-54 with 7:51 remaining in the game before the Lords (11-14, 8-10 NCAC) started its run with a 10-4 effort that was sparked by a four-point play Tim Connolly. The senior scored 33 points, including a three-pointer, was fouled and hit the free throw with 6:18 left to play to give Kenyon its first lead since the 12:55 mark of the second half.
 
The Little Giants remained close thanks to a driving layup by Johnny Jager and a jumper from Marcus Kammrath that answered another Connolly basket and evened the score at 62-62 at the 5:32 mark. The Lords hit three of their next six shots from the field and went 13-of-16 from the free throw line to close out the game with a 20-14 run.
 
"I definitely think the triple-overtime game at DePauw Wednesday is just another example of an experience that this group had not had to deal with," Wabash head coach Kyle Brumett said. "Triple overtime in a rivalry game and then have to come back and play three days later. I'm sure there was some fatigue.
 
"There wasn't a lot of consistency from the first half to the second half today. The first half was a fairly physical half. There were not a whole lot of free throws taken. It seemed like there were many more calls in the second half. We probably needed to cash in on few of those chances in the second half. With all of the stoppages I didn't feel we got into a consistent flow. We also had a bunch of defensive breakdowns when we had that four-point lead. There was a string of defensive breakdowns by our guys that just didn't give us an opportunity to get away from them (Kenyon). That's what we needed to do especially coming off of that loss Wednesday. When we had the opportunity we needed to get some separation between us and them. Kenyon's guys made some plays down the stretch and put us behind."
 
Wabash held a 36-33 halftime edge, keeping the Lords without a three-pointer in the opening 20 minutes on four attempts before the Lords responded with a 3-for-5 effort from long range in the second half. The Little Giants notched two more field goals than Kenyon in the opening period, including two three-pointers, to help provide the three-point edge. Daniel Purvlicis  scored half of his team-best 26 points for Wabash in the first half, while Kammrath notched eight points in the opening period.
 
Jager finished with 11 points for Wabash, while Kammrath tossed in 10 points. The Little Giants shot 29-of-74 from the field (39.2 percent) overall in a physical contest in the paint that featured a combined 16 blocked shots --- five by Wabash and 11 for the Lords. Wabash held Kenyon to 25-of-60 shooting from the field (41.7 percent) but finished 29-of-36 from the free throw line for 80.6 percent while Wabash converted 12-of-18 free throws for 66.7 percent.
 
The loss drops Wabash (13-12, 7-11 NCAC) into a tie for seventh in the final North Coast Athletic Conference regular season standings. The Little Giants earn the eighth seed in next week's NCAC Tournament after losing a head-to-head tiebreaker with Oberlin and will play at top-seeded Ohio Wesleyan Tuesday evening at 7:30 p.m.