A 35-point effort from Jack Davidson along with a career-best 17 points from freshman Tyler Watson lifted the Wabash basketball team to a 98-69 win at Franklin College Monday evening. The Little Giants improved to 8-0 with the victory.
 
Davidson matched his career-best total of 35 points scored against Earlham as a freshman in 2017. The sophomore guard scored 26 points in the first half to help Wabash to a 52-39 lead. Davidson finished an efficient 12-of-19 shooting from the field and handed out a game-high six assists to go with one steal and only one turnover in 30 minutes of playing time.
 
Watson was pressed into his first career collegiate start due to an injury to sophomore guard Connor Rotterman. Watson tallied his 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field, including 3-of-6 from three-point range. He added four rebounds, three assists, and two steals to his game totals in 31 minutes on the court.
 
"Tyler has gotten better each game," Wabash head coach Kyle Brumett said. "He got thrown into the starting lineup tonight due to some injuries. I thought he not only scored well but was also good defensively. I thought he played really hard. He made it hard for Franklin to match his effort. Tyler is kind of figuring out you have to make your mark defensively to get the chance to put some points on the board. That's new for him. He's a freshman and he's never really had to guard someone in high school. I was really happy with how he played defensively today."
 
Wabash, ranked 21st in the latest D3hoops.com poll released earlier in the day, jumped out to a 2-0 lead and never looked back. The Little Giants extended their advantage to ten points at 15-5 just over four minutes into the game. With a 21-13 lead, the host Grizzlies (3-7) began to cut into the lead. Franklin drew to within a point of Wabash at 21-20 with 11:30 left to play in the opening period on a layup by Matt Krause before the Little Giants went on another big scoring run.
 
An 18-3 edge over the next five minutes increased the Wabash lead to 39-23. Franklin whittled the lead down to ten points at 43-33 with 3:11 remaining in the first half before Davidson and Watson combined to score the final nine points of the period for the Little Giants to put Wabash up 52-39 at the break.
 
Franklin cut the lead to 11 points early in the second period before a Ben Stachowski three-point basket made the score 63-49. Colten Garland followed with a three-pointer of his own along with another triple from Watson to push the advantage to 69-51 The Little Giants pulled away over the final 13 minutes of the game, shooting 17-of-34 from the field over the course of the second half while holding Franklin to 12-of-33 shooting for the period and 26-of-66 for the game in the 29-point victory.
 
Wabash won the rebounding battle versus Franklin 45-32, thanks in part to a game-high eight-rebound effort from both Stachowski and Logan White. Harrison Hallstrom chipped in 15 points and five rebounds
 
"We had a really good offensive first half," Brumett said. "There were some things that Franklin was doing that gave us some trouble, especially in transition. A lot of times they would push after we scored. They came back at us quickly. Franklin is really good at that. They're probably as good at pushing the attack and coming right back at you as anyone we have played up to this point. Our guys made some good adjustments. Those adjustments really gave us a chance to stretch out the lead in the second half. We've got good shooters. We had more open threes in the second half than in the first half. We scored in the paint in the first half. We were able to share the ball a little bit more and had guys knock down some jump shots in the second period.
 
"Jack is a special player. He's hard to prepare for because he gets to the free throw line so much. I felt like it was a quiet 26 points for him in the first half. I didn't realize he had that many points until we looked at the halftime box score. He's hard to guard. I was really happy with him getting six assists and only one turnover while putting up 35 points. We also got really good play from our seniors Logan White and Ben Stachowski tonight. They were really vocal defensively."
 
Wabash returns to Chadwick Court for a pair of North Coast Athletic Conference at the end of the week. The Little Giants, undefeated in NCAC play with a 3-0 conference record, play host to Allegheny College Thursday with the opening tip at 7 p.m. Less than 24 hours later Wabash will take on Hiram College beginning at 2 p.m. at Chadwick Court.