BEREA, OHIO – Junior guard Justin Roth (Parma) scored a career-high 18 points as the Baldwin Wallace University men's basketball team beat visiting Allegheny (Pa.) College, 83-73, in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium inside the Lou Higgins Center. This was the final contest in a three-game Yellow Jacket homestand.
With its win, BW is 2-1 overall and next plays on Wednesday, Nov. 28 at Cleveland cross-town rival Case Western Reserve University at 7:30 p.m. With its loss, Allegheny is 2-2 overall and has lost two straight.
In addition to Roth for BW, junior 2-time All-Ohio Athletic Conference forward Kyle Payne (Brunswick) had 14 points, junior All-OAC guard Kevin Krakowiak (Valley City/Holy Name) had 12, senior Academic All-OAC guard Ben Umbel (Poland/Seminary) and junior guard Grant Fairhurst (Ashland) each had 11 and junior center Aaron Selmek (Delaware/Columbus St. Francis De Sales) had 10.
Allegheny was led by senior guard Devone McLeod had a game-high 21 points, sophomore guard D'Andre Corbin had 16 and junior forward Ryan Stanko had 13 and a game-high 11 rebounds.
Keys for BW was making 17-of-29 field goals in the second half (58.6 percent) and outscored the Gators from the foul line, 19-7.
The Gators jumped out an early, 4-0 lead at the 17:23 mark when McLeod made a layup. BW closed to 4-2 on two foul shots at 17:03 by Umbel.
Allegheny increased its lead to 16-6 with a 12-4 run at 12:31 before Roth canned a three-pointer at 12:05 to make it 16-9.
The Gator lead grew to 11 points at 27-16 at 8:31 when Corbin made a layup, was fouled and made the foul shot for a 3-point play. BW came right back and scored 10 straight points, including two three-pointers by Fairhurst, to make it 27-26 with 6:11 left in the first stanza.
Allegheny outscored BW 8-6 the remainder of the half to lead 35-32 at the intermission.
The Yellow Jackets scored the first five points of the second half to take a 37-35 lead at 18:51 when Krakowiak made a jumper. The game was tied at 37-37 and 39-39 before two Roth free throws gave the Jackets at 41-39 advantage at 16:40.
The game was tied again at 41-41 before BW junior backup center Selmek scored eight straight points for a 49-41 lead at 13:01. The Gators scored six straight points to make it 49-47 with 10:23 left, but Umbel broke the streak with a layup at 10:09 to push the lead to 51-47.
Another Fairhurst triple pushed the lead to 54-47 with 9:23 left. Four straight Allegheny points cut the lead to 54-51, but a pair of Krakowiak charity tosses at 8:14 made it 56-51. After Allegheny got to within 60-56 on a McLeod foul shot at 6:08, Crowe hit a trey at 5:55, Krakowiak made a layup off a steal at 5:34 and two Roth foul shots at 5:20 gave BW its largest lead at 67-56.
Allegheny wasn't done. It scored six of the next eight points to cut BW's lead to 69-63 at 3:39, but a Roth triple at 3:17 and a tip-in by Payne at 2:47 restored the 11-point lead.
Again, the Gators came right back with a triple by sophomore guard Gabe Seidman at 2:03 to make it 74-66.
The Gators outscored BW 5-3 with Seidman making another three-pointer at 1:24 to cut the deficit to two possessions at 77-71, but that was as close as Allegheny could get to BW.
