BEREA, OHIO -- Senior guard Chris Switzer scored a career-high 30 points as the Mount Union College men's basketball team defeated Baldwin-Wallace College, 73-62, tonight (Wednesday, December 17, 2008) in an Ohio Athletic Conference game in the Timken PE Building in Alliance.
In addition to Switzer, junior guard Luke Conley hit double figures with 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds. B--W was led by junior guard Louis Tumblin (Elyria/Senior) with 15 points and senior center Andrew Bene (Hinckley/Medina Highland) with 13. Bene also added a game-high 14 rebounds.
With its win, Mount Union improves to its best start in school history at 7-1 overall and 2-1 in the OAC. With its loss, Baldwin-Wallace is now 2-6 overall and 0-3 in the OAC.
Mount Union gained a 2-0 advantage at the 19:41 mark when Switzer scored on a layup. B-W tied the score at 2-2 at the 18:34 mark when Bene rebounded a missed shot and scored. In the next nine minutes, there were seven more ties with the final one being at 19-19 with 9:33 left when Bene made a layup. The Purple Raiders then outscored the Yellow Jackets 18-11 to take their last of four seven-point leads at 37-30 with 2:17 left when Switzer made a jump shot. Mount Union added a free throw from junior forward Laron Marshall at the 1:47 mark to take a 38-30 lead at the intermission.
In the second half, the Yellow Jackets closed to within 38-34 at the 18:48 mark when senior two-time Academic All-OAC guard Dennis Santiago (Brookpark/Midpark) made a jumpshot. Mount Union then went on a 13-0 run to take its largest lead of the game at 51-34 with 14:16 left when sophomore guard Ben Hodkinson made a three-pointer. The closest the Yellow Jackets would get after that would be 11 points on five occasions with the last one being with 19.2 seconds left when Santiago made a jumpshot.
The Yellow Jackets are back in action this Saturday, Dec. 20 when they travel to Wilmington, Ohio and play the Wilmington College Quakers on Saturday, Dec. 20 at 3:00 p.m. BW is then idle until Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 27-28 when they travel to Westerville, Ohio to play at the Otterbein College 'O' Club Classic. B-W plays Thomas More (Ky.) College in the first round on Dec. 27 at 8:00 p.m.
Media and fans are reminded that they can listen to almost every B-W men's and women's basketball games LIVE on campus radio station WBW, 88.3 FM, and via the WBW Internet web site at www.wBW.com.
Media and fans are reminded that two more B-W men's basketball games will be televised by SportsTime Ohio (www.sportstimeohio.com). They are the January 17, 2009 home game versus Muskingum College at 3:00 p.m. and its February 18 contest at cross-town rival John Carroll University at 7:30 p.m.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, please contact B-W Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327, by FAX machine at 440-826-2329 or via e-mail at kruple@bw.edu. To contact Head Coach Duane Sheldon, please call 440-826-2115 or e-mail at dsheldon@bw.edu. You can get all of the latest B-W athletics information by visiting our Web site at www.bw.edu/athletics.
