Box Score
Ohio Wesleyan 65, Denison 63
Sophomore post Claude Gray (Avon) and senior post Reuel Rogers (Columbus/Bexley) scored 4 points apiece during a 14-4 second-half run that gave Ohio Wesleyan the lead, and the Bishops withstood 3 potential game-tying shots during the final 10 seconds to defeat Denison in North Coast Athletic Conference action on Saturday in Granville.
Denison had taken a 51-50 lead on Brad Woolard's lay-in with 7:52 left in regulation time.
Rogers answered with a jumper from the lane that put the Bishops ahead to stay, and Gray followed with a lay-in to make it a 54-51 game. After Denison's Alex Longi hit the first of 2 free throws, freshman guard Seth Clark (Lewis Center/Olentangy) hit a 3-pointer, and that pattern repeated itself when David Meurer split a pair of free throws and senior wing Dre White (Lima/Bath) knocked down a 3-pointer to give the Bishops a 60-53 advantage. Gray added a pair of free throws and Rogers sank a lay-in to cap the run, giving Ohio Wesleyan a 62-53 lead with 4:22 to play.
The Bishops still led, 65-57, when Rogers split a pair of free throws with exactly 3 minutes to go, but Denison came back as Longi and Meurer each hit a pair of charity tosses to cut the deficit to 4 points, and Longi's lay-in at the 1:09 mark brought the Big Red within 65-63.
Clark had a shot blocked by Patrick Keller with :40 to play, but the Bishops induced a miss from Meurer on the other end, and after Rogers was fouled and missed the front end of a one-and-one with :24 to play, the Big Red called time out with :18 remaining.
Longi misfired on a jumper at the :06 mark, and Matthew Bauer got the offensive rebound but missed the putback. Freshman wing Ben Simpson (Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest) grabbed the rebound, but Clark turned the ball over to Denison's Darius White, whose 15-footer at the horn hit the front of the rim.
Ohio Wesleyan had raced to a 6-0 lead on a 3-pointer by Gray and a 3-point play by Rogers. Denison came back to take the lead at 15-14 on John Cheng's 3-pointer midway through the first half. Ohio Wesleyan answered with a 3-pointer by senior guard Taylor Rieger (Lewis Center/Olentangy Orange) and opened up an 8-point lead on baskets by Rogers and sophomore post Matt Jeske (Glen Ellyn, Ill./Glenbard South) late in the half, but the Big Red scored the final 9 points of the period, taking a 31-30 lead on another Cheng 3-pointer.
The Bishops countered by scoring the first 8 points of the second half, collecting a Gray jumper from the lane and 3 straight hoops by Rieger, but Denison would come back to even the score at 43 with the help of 3-pointers by Cheng and Darius White.
Rieger led the Bishops with 16 points. Dre White added 13 points and shared the team lead with 9 rebounds, Rogers scored 12 points, and Gray added 11 points and shared the team lead with 8 boards. Clark collected a team-high 4 assists.
Longi led Denison with 18 points.
Box Score
