Wabash held on Wednesday evening to capture a key North Coast Athletic Conference road win, 80-77, at Ohio Wesleyan University.
 
The Little Giants (11-7, 7-4 NCAC) took over sole possession of third place in the conference standings and picked up a road victory after entering the game with a 3-6 overall road record and losses in their previous two road contests. The Battling Bishops (11-7, 6-5 NCAC) were unbeaten in six previous home games.
 
Wabash held an 11-point lead at 75-64 with 3:58 remaining in the contest before OWU mounted a final comeback effort. Tim Keifer hit a three-point basket for the Bishops to cut the lead to eight points. Wabash missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw trip before Bryson Lane's driving layup made the score 75-69 with 3:20 left to play in the contest. Another missed front end of a one-and-one try by Wabash gave the basketball back to OWU with just over two minutes remaining. Kiefer hit one of two free throw attempts, but the Battling Bishops came up with the offensive rebound off the missed second attempt. Lane drilled a three-point shot to bring OWU to within two points at 75-73 with 1:52 left to play.
 
The Little Giants missed a three-point shot attempt on the offensive end. Lane delivered another huge shot for OWU with a two-point basket to tie the score for the third time in the game, this time at 75-75 with 1:04 remaining.
 
Harrison Hallstrom scooped up his own missed shot on the next offensive trip for Wabash and drew a foul. The senior hit both free throws to put the Little Giants back in front 77-75. The Bishops missed a three-point attempt on their next possession. Hallstrom grabbed the defensive rebound and drew another foul, hitting one of two free throws to extend the Wabash lead to 78-75 with 22 seconds on the game clock.
 
Keifer drew a foul underneath the OWU basket with 14 seconds left in the contest and hit two free throws to draw the Bishops back to within a point. Ohio Wesleyan fouled Tyler Watson with 11 second remaining. Watson drained both free throws to push the lead back to three points. The Bishops got off one final three-point shot but Hallstrom corralled the miss to secure the victory.
 
Wabash raced out to a fast start by taking a 15-5 lead in the first five minutes of the game. A 9-2 scoring run over the next six minutes put the Little Giants in front 24-7 for their largest lead of the ballgame. OWU fought back from long range. After starting the game hitting only 1-of-17 three-point attempts, Jaret Gerber scored on back-to-back three-point shots. Jack Clement and Kiefer added three-point baskets as part of a 24-13 run by the Bishops to close out the period and cut the Wabash lead to 37-31 at halftime.
 
OWU started the second half with an 8-2 run to tie the game at 39-39. That's when Wabash guard Jack Davidson took over the scoring. The junior hit back-to-back deep three-point shots to sandwich a free three by Keifer to give the Little Giants a five-point lead. Kellen Schreiber added a layup to push the advantage to seven points. Davidson continued his hot shooting, scoring a total of 12 points over 4-1/2 minutes to provide a 12-point lead for the Little Giants.
 
The lead eventually became as large as 15 points at 70-55 with 7:23 left in the second half before Ohio Wesleyan whittled it down to the 75-75 tie with a minute left in the game.
 
Davidson and Watson both finished with 22 points to lead the Wabash offense in scoring. Hallstrom added 11 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season and 18^th of his career. He also became only the fourth Wabash player to record more than 700 career rebounds, joining former players Pete Metzelaars, Joe DesJean, and Daniel Purvlicis in that group. Kellen Schreiber also finished with a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
 
Davidson hit four three-point shots to move into third place on the Wabash career three-point basket list with a total of 174 treys in 70 games. He trails Chase Haltom in second place with 235 career three-pointers. Josh Estelle owns the school record with 328 career three-point baskets.
 
Gerber paced OWU in scoring with 17 points. Lane, Clement, and Grant Spicer each scored 11 points. Kiefer finished with 10 points.
 
Wabash shot 28-of-61 from the field in the game for 45.9 percent. The Little Giants shot 10-of-22 from three-point range (45.5 percent) and went 14-of-19 from the free throw line. Ohio Wesleyan hit 27-of-68 shots overall in the game, including 11-of-44 from behind the arc. Wabash controlled the boards by holding a 47-32 rebounding advantage.
 
Wabash returns to Chadwick Court Saturday to begin a four-game home stand with a 2 p.m. contest against the 17^th-ranked College of Wooster Fighting Scots. Wooster (14-4, 8-3 NCAC) lost 89-84 at home to Allegheny Wednesday evening.