Wabash outscored Earlham College 45-24 in the second half of the Little Giants' season-opening basketball game to earn a 79-64 road victory Wednesday evening in Richmond, Indiana.
 
Wabash (1-0) held the Quakers (0-2) to 6-of 29 shooting from the field and a 31-13 rebounding edge over the final 20 minutes of the game to start the season with a win.
 
The Little Giants led by nine points midway through the opening period before Earlham took advantage of a series of Wabash turnovers to cut the advantage to one point with 3:32 left in the half. Qawi Rucker produced a steal and drove the lane for a layup to move in front 31-30. Wabash eventually moved back in front 34-33 with 1:43 remaining in the first half. The Quakers responded with a 7-0 run to close out the period, called by a buzzer-beating three-point basket by Jamel Barnes for a 40-34 halftime score.
 
Wabash opened the second half on a 24-3 scoring run to jump in front by 15 points at 58-43. The Little Giants held Earlham to a single basket in the first ten minutes of the period while continually attacking the basket on offense. Wabash scored 28 points in the paint in the second half and shot 16 free throws over the final 2o minutes to secure the 15-point victory.
 
Jack Davidson led Wabash in scoring with 28 points. Connor Rotterman added 17 points with Harrison Hallstrom chipping in 16 points. Ben Stachowski gathered a game-high 14 rebounds to help the Little Giants to a 51-28 advantage on the glass.
 
"I thought our older guys did a really good job of setting the tone, deciding that defense and rebounding would be the identity for us in the second half," Wabash head coach Kyle Brumett said. "I felt like we got off to a good start in the first half doing some of that same stuff, but then we got careless and were trying to do a little too much offensively. Give Earlham credit, they turned our mistakes into points. I was really happy with the second half we got from our juniors and seniors. Stachowski was really vocal and was adamant that we were going to guard and not give Earlham anything easy. He dominated the defensive glass."
 
Wabash finished 29-of-57 from the field but connected on only 2-of-11 three-point attempts. The Little Giants shot 19-of 29 from the free throw line with Davidson leading the way with an 11-of-13 effort from the stripe.
 
"We've got a really good shooting team," Brumett said. "We didn't shoot it well tonight. I think it showed some maturity by our group. Instead of continuing to bang away from the outside until some shots went in ­­­--- and they would have --- our guys played with themselves and got the ball into the paint and drove it to the basket, got to the foul line almost 30 times, and finished a lot of twos in the second half. Rotterman set the tone with that. He was in the paint most of the night. He made a couple of good plays for some other guys to finish and got to the foul line six times. Once we got into the bonus Davidson kept the pressure on them. It's going to be important for us that we have balance."
 
Blake Bonin and Darrell Hutchison, Jr. led the Quakers in scoring with 13 point apiece.
 
Wabash opens the home portion of the 2018-19 season Tuesday evening against Boyce College in a 7 p.m. contest.