BEREA, OHIO – Junior All-Ohio Athletic Conference forward Kyle Payne (Brunswick) scored a game-high 22 points as the Baldwin Wallace University men's basketball team defeated the University of Mount Union, 80-71, in an OAC game in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium inside the Lou Higgins Center.
With its win, BW improved to 6-4 overall, 2-2 in the OAC and won its third straight game. With its loss, the Purple Raiders fell to 4-6 overall and 3-2 in the OAC.
In addition to Payne for the Yellow Jackets, junior guard Justin Roth (Parma) had 11 points and junior All-OAC guard Kevin Krakowiak (Valley City/Holy Name) added 10 points, all in the second half. Senior Academic All-OAC guard Ben Umbel (Poland/ Seminary) contributed eight points and a team-high nine rebounds. Mt. Union was led by sophomore forward Steve Griffin, who came off the bench to score 17 points, and sophomore guard Nate Jacubec with 15 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
BW opened scoring at 2-0 on a layup from Payne at the 19:35 mark. Mt. Union responded and took the lead on a three-pointer from Jacubec at 18:53. After each team exchanged baskets, the game would be tied on five different occasions with the last coming at 15-15 when Griffin scored with 9:43 left in the opening period.
The Yellow Jackets then would go on 5-0 run to take a 20-15 lead on a traditional three-point play by Roth and a layup by senior guard Brandon Schmidt (Wellington) at the 8:28 mark. After the Purple Raiders cut the lead to 23-21, BW would once again used a 5-0 run to take a 28-21 advantage at the 6:18 mark as junior forward Skyler Simpson (Centerburg) scored all the points on a three-pointer and a layup.
After each team scored a hoop, the Yellow Jackets went on 6-0 run that was capped on a layup by Umbel at 3:34 to take a 11-point lead at 36-25. Mt. Union would outscore BW 10-3 over the remainder of the half to trail 39-35 at the intermission.
The Yellow Jackets opened the second half scoring on a 8-0 run to to lead by 12 points, at 47-35, with 16:34 remaining. Payne scored all eight points. The Purple Raiders went on to outscore BW 12-5 to cut the lead to five at 52-47 on a layup by Jacubec at 10:27. Undaunted, the Yellow Jackets outscored Mt. Union 15-5 to extend to their lead to 67-52 with 4:42 left in the game. BW would push its lead to as many as 19 points, at 75-56, on a trey from Krakowiak at 2:59.
The Purple Raiders would outscore BW 15-5 over the remainder of the game and only got as close as nine points on three separate occasions, including the final score of 80-71.
BW is back in action on Saturday, Dec. 29 when they travel to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania to play King's College in a non-league game at 1:00 p.m. The Yellow Jackets begin the new year at OAC rival Otterbein University on Wednesday, January 2, 2013 in Westerville at 7:30 p.m. The next home game is on Saturday, Jan. 5 against OAC rival Marietta College at 3:00 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.
Photo Courtesy of Mark Selmek
