Wabash grabbed an 11-point lead with 5:39 left in Wednesday night's North Coast Athletic Conference game at Ohio Wesleyan and held on to win 76-67 to remain unbeaten for the season.
 
The Little Giants (6-0, 2-0 NCAC) won at Ohio Wesleyan (4-3, 1-1 NCAC) for the first time since February, 2010 and claimed their first victory over the Battling Bishops in the last seven meetings between the two schools.
 
"We showed a lot of toughness tonight," Wabash head coach Kyle Brumett said. "Give Ohio Wesleyan a lot of credit, they guarded us really well. The game was really physical. I thought our guys played better together as the game went on. We figured out some of the things Ohio Wesleyan was trying to do and some things that were giving us some trouble. We shared the ball better in the second half. We limited the turnovers and kept making plays and I thought that was the difference in the game.
 
"The past year or two whether it was because of us or because of Ohio Wesleyan we would have needed that game to be in the lower 60s or upper 50s. Tonight as Ohio Wesleyan made a run and we were able to hold them off, we were able to score and make enough plays for each other to get the win."
 
The Battling Bishops regained the lead in the second half, pushing their advantage to as high as six points before Wabash evened the score at 47-47 with 12:15 left in the contest. OWU scored back-to-back baskets to push its advantage back to five points. The Little Giants answered with an 11-0 run over the next four minutes, thanks in part by three-point baskets from Connor Rotterman and Alex Eberhard. Rotterman added two more baskets to push the lead to 66-55, only to have the Battling Bishops trim it back to four points with four minutes on the game clock.
 
Jack Davidson hit a pair of free throws to provide a six-point lead for the Little Giants, but Jaret Gerber hit one of 10 three-point shots for OWU to make it a 68-65 game in favor of Wabash. Davidson, the current NCAC Men's Basketball Player of the Week, drained one of his two three-point baskets in the game with 1:03 left to play to provide a six-point advantage. He and Rotterman scored on five of six free throws in the final 30 seconds of the game to earn the victory.
 
Davidson, who was held to two points in the first half, scored 15 points in the game to share team-leading honors. Freshman Kellen Schreiber came off the bench to tally 15 points as part of a 29-point effort by the Wabash reserves.
 
"Our team depth has been huge," Brumett said. "The scoring goes right along with that. We have guys coming off the bench, like Colten Garland who came in and scored a bunch of points and made big shots. Kellen Schreiber, Tyler Watson, and Conner Brens all bring something different to the game. Watson and Brens come into the game playing so hard. I think it's hard for other teams to match their intensity level. And Kellen is just a scorer. We knew he was a scorer when we recruited him. We have more scoring and offensive depth, and that is where we've grown from last year to this year."
 
Harrison Hallstrom added 14 points and nine rebounds for Wabash. Rotterman chipped in nine points, Garland scored eight, and Brens tossed in six.
 
Freshman Ethan Stanislawski led Ohio Wesleyan with 16 points.
 
The Little Giants came into the game holding a plus-12 rebounding margin against their opponents, but lost the battle of the boards 47-38. However, Wabash took advantage of the offensive glass, outscoring OWU 16-8 on second-chance opportunities.
 
The Little Giants return to Chadwick Court Saturday for a 2 p.m. contest against 15th-ranked Wooster. The Fighting Scots (7-0, 3-0 NCAC) joined Wabash as the only undefeated teams in overall record among NCAC teams by defeating Allegheny 101-84 Wednesday evening.