BEREA, OHIO – Junior All-Ohio Athletic Conference guard Kevin Krakowiak (Holy Name) scored 28 points and tied a school-record with eight three-pointers as the Baldwin Wallace University men's basketball team beat visiting Bethany (W. Va.) College, 80-75, today (Saturday, November 17, 2012) in the season-opener and home opener for the Yellow Jackets.
With its win, BW is 1-0 overall and next hosts defending North Coast Athletic Conference champion The College of Wooster on Tuesday, Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m. With its loss, Bethany, which finished 25-4 overall and won the Presidents Athletic Conference title a year ago, is 1-1 overall.
In addition to Krakowiak for BW, junior All-OAC forward Kyle Payne (Brunswick) contributed 23 points and three rebounds and sophomore guard Jaron Crowe (Mentor) had 14 points and four three-pointers. Bethany was led by freshman forward Nate Welson with 17 points. All five Bison starters tallied double figures.
The Yellow Jackets jumped out an early, 6-0 lead at the 19:02 mark when Krakowiak caned his second straight three-pointer. Bethany outscored BW 4-1 to close to 7-4 when freshman forward Nate Weldon made two foul shots at 17:43, but another Krakowiak triple at 16:53 pushed the lead back to 10-4.
The lead grew to 11 points at 15-4 with 15:38 left when Krakowiak nailed his fourth straight trey. The Bison got back to 17-14 with a 10-2 run at the 12:46 mark when 2012 PAC Player of the Year, senior forward Nick Wilcox canned a jumper.
BW went on a 6-0 run to take 23-14 advantage at 9:31, spurred by four points by transfer junior guard Justin Roth (Parma/ Senior). BW then outscored Bethany 13-8 to build a 14-point lead at 36-22 at 3:30. The run was led by three consecutive three-pointers by Crowe.
The lead grew to a first half high of 16 on two occasions with the last at 41-25 when Roth made a trey. Weldon scored the final five points of the stanza for Bethany to make it 41-30 BW at the intermission.
The Yellow Jackets opened the second half on a 7-0 run at 17:39 to take a 48-30 lead as Crowe made his fourth three. BW's lead grew to 23 points at 61-38 at the 12:53 mark when Payne made a layup. The 13-8 run was spurred by three more Krakowiak treys. But Bethany was not done as it went on an 8-0 run to close to 61-46 at 10:05, but a basket by BW junior center Aaron Selmek (Delaware/ Columbus De Sales) ended it at 9:48.
The Bison continued to chip away at the lead and trailed 65-56 at 5:57 when Weldon grabbed a blocked shot off the backboard and slammed it home. Bethany got as close as five points at 65-60 with 5:11 left when Weldon slammed another home, but Krakowiak scored five straight points, including his eighth three-pointer at 3:55 to make it 70-60.
BW built its lead back to 12 points at 76-62 with 1:23 left when Payne made two foul shots, but Bethany wasn't done yet. The Bison outscored BW 13-2 to close to 78-75 with 56 seconds left when Barton made a triple. Crowe upped the lead to 80-75 with 40.1 left by making two foul shots. But that was as close as the Bison got to BW.
Following its Tuesday game versus Wooster, the Yellow Jackets end their three-game season-opening homestand by hosting Allegheny (Pa.) College on Saturday, Nov. 24 at 7:00 p.m.
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 Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu. Fans can access the latest BW athletics information at www.bwyellowjackets.com and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.
