Vinny Buccilla erupted for 19 first-half points on the way to matching his career-high of 26 points to lead the Wabash College basketball team to a 76-50 over Kenyon in North Coast Athletic Conference action Wednesday evening at Chadwick Court.
 
Wabash (7-2, 3-0 NCAC) shot just under 50 percent from the field for the game, connecting on 31 of 63 attempts for 49.2 percent. Buccilla paced the offensive attack by hitting 10 of his 16 shot attempts, including a 6-of-10 effort from three-point range. The Little Giants went 9 of 26 from long range for 34.6 percent.
 
Kenyon (1-8, 1-1 NCAC) took advantage of a cold start by the Little Giants. The visiting Owls jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the first four minutes of the game before a pair of free throws from Sam Comer and Buccilla's first basket trimmed the advantage to one point in Kenyon's favor. The Owls regained a three-point lead on a basket by Connor Moss before baskets by Comer and Nate Matelic gave Wabash a 10-9 lead.
 
Moss added another two points for the Owls, but Comer tied the game at 11-11 with 12:54 remaining in the opening half. That's when Buccilla took control of the game. The junior guard scored the following 11 points for Wabash. He missed his next shot, but Comer scored on the offensive putback. Buccilla scored again with a three-point basket to put the Little Giants up 27-13 midway through the period.
 
Kenyon cut the lead to seven over the next four minutes thanks to driving baskets by Nick Nelson, who led the Owls with 14 points. Nelson scored six of Kenyon's ten points during the Owl's run to make it a 30-23 contest with 5:14 remaining in the half.
 
Then, it was Ahmoni Jones' time to take over the scoring. The senior tallied two straight baskets to push the lead back to double digits. Come added consecutive scores, including a fast-break layup off a steal by Jones to boost the lead to 15 points. Another Buccilla three-pointer made it an 18-point lead at 41-23 with 1:11 left in the first half. Nelson scored the final points of the half for Kenyon to trim the Wabash advantage to 41-25 at the break.
 
Buccilla finished the first 20 minutes of the game with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting and hit five of his eight three-point shots.
 
Nelson scored to open the second half to draw Kenyon to within 14 points, but it was as close as the Owls would get. The Little Giants outscored Kenyon 35-25 over the final 20 minutes and led by as many as 30 points with 4:17 on the game clock before claiming the 26-point victory.
 
Comer and Jones joined Buccilla with double-figure scoring efforts. Comer finished with 15 points, while Jones added 14 points. Wabash outrebounded Kenyon 37-34, led by a seven-rebound effort by Jones. Comer grabbed six boards, and Noah Hupmann added five rebounds and three blocked shots. Wabash finished with six blocks as a team.
 
Wabash held Kenyon to 25.8 percent shooting from the field in the second half after the Owls hit 50 percent of their shots in the opening period. Kenyon shot 20 of 55 from the field for the game for 36.4 percent and made just 4 of 21 three-point attempts (19 percent). The Little Giants scored 24 points off 18 Kenyon turnovers.
 
Wabash remains unbeaten in conference play and is tied with Denison at the top of the NCAC standings. The Little Giants travel to Wittenberg Saturday for a 2 p.m. contest. Wittenberg lost its first conference game of the season 73-60 at DePauw Wednesday evening.