The Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops came to Chadwick court on Wednesday night and the mantra "Wabash Always Fights" was in full swing for Wabash, trailing at one time by 23 points in the second half in an eventual 73-65 loss to Ohio Wesleyan.
 
Wabash (8-10, 4-7 NCAC) played two different halves on both ends of the floor. In the first, they could not get much going and the energy was low. But in the second half, the Little Giants stepped up their defensive energy and made Ohio Wesleyan (12-6, 9-2 NCAC) fight for every point it got.
 
"They shot 47 percent from the field in the first half and I felt like we came out offensively very timid," head coach Kyle Brumett said. "Colten Garland was aggressive and didn't shoot it well but he has a lot of responsibility on him. I was disappointed some of our other guys didn't start the game really wanting to see the ball go in the basket."
 
Scoring was slow early in the game with only eight total points being scored in the first five minutes of the game and much of that being due to both teams playing solid defense.
 
Ohio Wesleyan outscored Wabash 46-29 in the first half and it looked like a disappointing defeat was well on its way to coming to fruition.
 
That looked even more possible as the Battling Bishops scored the first six points of the second half to take a 52-29 lead. At that point Ohio Wesleyan was 13-of-27 from behind the arc and didn't seem like the visitors were going to slow down. Sophomore Duncan Roy hit a three but then Ohio Wesleyan answered to send it to a 55-32 lead with 17:46 left.
 
But then Wabash rolled to a 22-4 run over the next 9 minutes to cut the lead down to five points. During that span Ohio Wesleyan shot 0-of-9 from behind the arc and with 8:54 left in the game, Wabash trailed 59-54.
 
"(Assists) are why we were able to close it," Brumett said. "That's why we scored 36 instead of 29. We don't have a selfish team. The combination of making the right play and then making a pass that someone can finish has been a struggle."
 
Five points was as close as Wabash would come the rest of the game as a few missed free throws really hurt. Ohio Wesleyan hit key free throws in the closing stretch of the game. Wabash just could not muster up another run and were outscored 14-9 the remaining nine minutes. Ohio Wesleyan's last made field goal came with 5:47 left in regulation but they went 8-for-9 after that point to clinch the game.
 
The Little Giants outrebounded the Battling Bishops 41-33 and sophomore Logan White pulled down 12 of them to pair with 10 points to gave him another double-double on the year.
 
Sophomore Ben Stachowski led the Little Giants with 14 points and freshman Garland was the other double-digit scorer with 12. Sophomore Dalton Vachon came off the bench and scored seven points to set a new career high and also added in five rebounds while continuing his solid play off the bench.
 
"Dalton has been playing great over the last month or so," Brumett said.
 
Nate Axelrod scored 23 points for Ohio Wesleyan. Ben Simpson added 20 points and seven rebounds.
 
Wabash will welcome Kenyon this Saturday at 3 p.m. for a NCAC matchup. The game will be preceeded by the annual alumni game at 1 p.m.