Box Score
Ohio Wesleyan 94, Denison 68

Junior guard Taylor Rieger (Lewis Center/Olentangy Orange) and senior wing Greg White (Centerville) hit 3-pointers to cap a 24-2 first-half run that started 16th-ranked Ohio Wesleyan on its way to a North Coast Athletic Conference win over Denison on Wednesday at Branch Rickey Arena.

The win was the Bishops' ninth in a row and raised Ohio Wesleyan's NCAC record to 5-0, keeping the Bishops in a tie for first place with Wooster in the conference standings.

Denison had taken a 6-3 lead on 3-pointers by Robby Weingart and Jon Akpapunam during the first 72 seconds of play.

Back-to-back dunks from senior wing Vaughn Spaulding (Reynoldsburg) put the Bishops ahead to stay, and a Rieger 3-pointer, followed by hoops from freshman post Claude Gray (Avon) and senior guard Andy Winters (Columbus/Bishop Watterson) gave Ohio Wesleyan a 14-6 lead with 16:22 remaining in the half.

Dimonde Hale scored to bring the Big Red within 14-8, but the Bishops answered with a 13-0 run that included a 3-point play and a fast-break lay-in from Gray, a Rieger lay-in, and 3-pointers by White and Rieger, the latter pushing the margin to 27-8 with 11:11 left in the period.

Consecutive 3-pointers by White extended the margin to 41-18 with 3:57 left in the half, but Denison rallied with 3-pointers from Bret Woolard, Weingart, and Akpapunam to pull within 45-29 at the intermission.

The Big Red continued their torrid outside shooting to open the second half, collecting a pair of 3-pointers from Woolard and another by Akpapunam to pull within 49-42 less than 4 minutes into the period.

Ohio Wesleyan answered with a 9-0 run, coming out of a timeout with a close-range basket by junior post Reuel Rogers (Columbus/Bexley), then adding a Rieger 3-pointer and lay-ins from Spaulding and Winters to score 9 points in a span of just over 2 minutes.

Denison closed to within 60-47 on a 3-pointer from Alex Longi with 13:24 remaining, but that was as close as the Big Red would come.  Trifectas from Rieger, Gray, and senior wing Anjuwon Spence (Cranston, R.I./Moses Brown) helped push the lead back to 20 points, and the Bishops would close out the game from there.

White led the Bishops with 17 points, connecting of 5 of 7 shots from beyond the arc.  Rieger added 16 points, Spaulding finished with 12 points and a team-high 6 rebounds, and Gray scored 10 points.  Winters dished a game-high 8 assists.

Hale led Denison with 15 points and 12 boards.

Box Score