BEREA, OHIO --  Senior All-Ohio Athletic Conference forward Kyle Brown (Strongsville) scored a career-high 32 points as the Baldwin Wallace University men's basketball team defeated host Thomas More College, 96-90, tonight (Monday, December 28, 2009) in the Championship Game of the Coach Connor Classic in Crestview Hills, Kentucky.  BW had a 2-0 mark in the tourney as it also defeated Indiana University-East, 96-87 in overtime, in its first game.

In addition to Kyle Brown for BW, junior guard Zane Meeder (Erie, Pa./ Fairview) scored 12 points and grabbed a team-high six rebounds and freshman forward Chris Ameen (Broadview Heights/ Walsh Jesuit) had 10 points.  Keys to the Yellow Jacket win were shooting 59.6 percent from the floor on 34-of-57 attempts and making four crucial foul shots in the last 20 seconds of the contest. The Saints were led by junior forward Aaron Miller's 26 points and game-high 10 rebounds.

With its win, BW is now 6-5 overall and plays next on January 3, 2010 when it travels to Alma, Michigan to play Alma College at 2:00 p.m.

In the first half, the Yellow Jackets jumped out to a 5-0 lead at the 18:34 mark when Ameen made a layup.  BW extended its lead to 15-9 at the 14:54 mark when senior captain Paul Glass (Medina/ Senior) made a three-pointer.  

The Yellow Jackets continued to increase their lead to eight points at 36-28 at the 5:40 mark when Brown made his third three-pointer of the opening half.  Following Kyle Brown's fourth triple of the stanza at the 44-second mark, sophomore guard Matt Triana (North East, Pa.) canned a pair of foul shots with 8.8 seconds left to give BW its largest lead of the half at 51-38 at the intermission.

Brown led the way in the first half with 18 points as the Yellow Jacket starters outscored the Saint starters, 34-14.

In the second half, Thomas More scored the first four points to cut BW's lead to nine points, but BW went on a 8-0 run of its own, including three layups by Ameen, to take a 17-point lead at 59-42 with 17:00 left.

The Saints cut BW's lead to 13 points at 64-51 with 11:49 left, but BW's Kyle Brown answered with eight straight points, including his fifth and sixth treys of the game, to push the lead to 21 points at 72-51 with 10:28 remaining.  Undaunted, Thomas More went on a 17-2 run to cut the Yellow Jacket lead to 74-68 with 6:56 left when Eddie Brown canned a three-pointer.

Thomas More continued to close in on the Yellow Jackets and got as close as two points at 94-92 with 24 seconds left when Miller made two foul shots.  BW countered with two foul shots by sophomore point guard Promis Cabbil (Elyria/ Senior) with 20 seconds left pushed the lead to 94-90. Then Meeder "iced" the game with two more foul shots with 5.3 seconds left .

Media and fans can listen LIVE to all Yellow Jacket men's and women's basketball games on campus radio station WBW, 88.3 FM. BW resumes Ohio Athletic Conference play on Wednesday, Jan. 6 when it hosts arch-rival Mount Union College at 7:30 p.m. in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium in the Lou Higgins Center in Berea.

In addition, the upcoming February 20, 2010 game versus Otterbein College will be taped by S&S Video Productions and telecast on SportsTime Ohio.  The Feb. 20 game also is the Second Annual "Take a Kid to the Game" Day. For more information on that game, please call Meg Carney in the BW Athletic Department at 440-826-2140 or visit the "Take a Kid to the Game" web site at www.bw.edu/athletics/takeakid10.

FOR MORE BW Sports Information, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu or Assistant SID Nick Minerd by phone at 440-826-2780 and e-mail at nminerd@bw.edu. Fans can access the latest BW athletics information at www.bw.edu/athletics and we invite you to join us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics