BEREA, Ohio – Four Baldwin Wallace University men's basketball players scored in double figures as the Yellow Jackets defeated Capital University, 78-68, in the first round of the 2014 Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium inside the Lou Higgins Center.  

BW (14-12) advances to play at No.3-seed Wilmington College tomorrow night in the OAC Tournament second round at 7:30 p.m.  Capital (12-14) ends its season.

The Yellow Jackets were led by senior All-OAC guard Kevin Krakowiak (Valley City/Holy Name), who moved into 15th on the all-time BW scoring list with 1, 364 points, had a game-high 25 points.  Junior point guard Jaron Crowe (Mentor) scored 16 points and dished out a game-high four assists.  Junior forward Matt Dennis (Spring Hill, Fla./Nature Coast Technical) tallied 14 and senior guard Grant Fairhurst (Ashland) chipped in 10.

Capital was led by junior center Andrew Bolka with 18 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds. 

After an opening three by the Crusaders, the Yellow Jackets answered with a 9-0 run to take a 9-3 lead on a layup by Dennis with 17:09 remaining.  Capital responded with a 7-3 run to cut the lead down to 12-10 on a jumper by junior forward Daniel Ocke at 14:50.

The Crusaders would tie the game on four occasions with the last coming at 30-30 on a jumper by junior guard Mike Augustine with 3:39 left.   BW would close the half on an 8-1 run to take a 38-31 lead at halftime.

The Yellow Jackets opened the second half on a 17-4 run to take a 55-35 lead on a layup by Crowe with 13:00 remaining.   Capital would not go away quietly as it cut the lead down to nine points at 72-63 on a layup by sophomore guard AJ Dixon at the 1:10 mark.

The OAC semifinals are on Thursday, February 27 and the OAC Championship Game on Saturday, March 1. You can view the entire OAC Tournament bracket on the OAC website at www.oac.org.

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