BEREA, Ohio – Senior three-time All-Ohio Athletic Conference forward Kyle Payne (Brunswick) scored 21 points, but the Baldwin Wallace University men's basketball team lost to Wilmington College, 87-74, in a rescheduled Ohio Athletic Conference game in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium in the Lou Higgins Center. The game was originally supposed to be played on Saturday, Dec. 14 but moved to tonight due to inclement weather and dangerous travel.
BW, now 5-2 overall and 2-2 in the OAC, ended a four-game winning streak. With his 21 points, Payne now has 1,276 career points and surpassed Leonard Roth (1953-57) to move into 16th place on the all-time scoring list. Next up is Dick "The Stork" Retherford at 1,288 points and 15th place.
In addition to Payne, junior guard Jaron Crowe (Mentor) had 16 points and eight assists and senior two-time All-OAC guard Kevin Krakowiak (Valley City/ Parma Heights Holy Name) had 14. Junior forward Matt Dennis (Spring Hill, Fla./ Nature Coast Technical) had a game and career-high 11 rebounds to go with eight points.
Wilmington, now 4-3 overall and 3-1 in the OAC, had four players score in double figures and were led by senior guard Klarke Ransome and junior guard R.J. Leppert with 17 points each. Earlier this winter, the Quakers beat Division I and Mid-American Conference Miami of Ohio.
In the first half, the Quakers grabbed a 4-0 lead at 19:29 when junior guard Dwight Johnson drove to the basket and made a layup. Wilmington's lead grew to 10-4 at 16:10 when Leppert made a layup. BW responded with a 12-0 run to take the lead at 16-10 with 12:23 left when Krakowiak made a driving layup.
The Quakers used a 11-3 run to retake the lead at 21-19 with 7:57 left when senior forward Ben Vonderhaar made two foul shots. After the game was tied twice at 21-21 and 23-23, BW had a 5-1 spurt to lead 28-24 with 4:53 left before halftime when Dennis made a layup.
The game was tied at 31-31 before Wilmington had leads of 33-31 and 36-34 with 2:19 left when senior forward Malcom Heard II made a three-pointer. BW came back and tied it at 36-36 with 1:31 left when senior forward Tyler Ferrell (Brunswick) made a layup. There was no more first half scoring and the game remained tied at the intermission.
In the second half, the game was tied a 38-38 before BW grabbed a 41-38 lead on two foul shots by Crowe at 17:30, but Wilmington came back to tie it at 43-43 on a foul shot by senior forward Ben McGriff at 15:17. After Dennis gave BW a 45-43 lead with a layup at 15:00, the Quakers tied it again at 45-45 with 14:00 let when Leppert made a layup, was fouled buut missed the free throw.
After Crowe gave BW a 48-47 lead at 12:36, Wilmington's freshman guard Law Williams gave the Quakers a 49-48 advantage with a layup at 12:12, a three-pointer by Ransome at 10:59 pushed the lead to 52-48 and prompted a BW timeout., a jumper by Heard II at 10:18 mae it 54-48 and Ransome layup at 9:45 made it 56-48. BW ended the 9-0 run when freshman point guard Zack Brandy (Hudson) canned a three-pointer at 9:28 to make the score 56-51.
Another 4-0 Quaker run pushed the lead to a game-high of nine at 60-51 with 8:51 left when Leppert made a layup. Crowe got BW a bit closer with two foul shots at 7:50. At 7:16, Krakowiak grabbed an offensive rebound, scored, was fouled and made the free throw to close the gap to 60-56. After Leppert made a layup for Wilmington at 6:55 and Crowe made two free throws for BW at 6:47, the score was 64-58.
McGriff pushed the lead back to 67-58 with a trey at 6:28 and the teams traded baskets on four straight possessions with Ransome hitting a running jumper in the lane at 5:26 for a 71-62 lead, and earning his team a timeout. After a Payne foul shot at 5:03 closed the gap to 71-63, the Quakers received an old-fashioned three-point play from senior forward Christian Patterson and had their largest lead at 74-63 with 4:35 left.
Wilmington led by as 14 points at 82-68 with 2:06 left when Ransome canned a triple. The closest BW would get after that point was 10 points at 84-74 with 1:29 left when Ferrell made a three-pointer.
BW is back in action next Wednesday, Dec. 18 when it travels to Alliance to play OAC rival the University of Mount Union in the McPherson Academic and Athletic Complex (MAAC) at 7:30 p.m. The Yellow Jackets remain on the road on Saturday, Dec. 21 when they play at Bethany (W.Va.) College at 1:00 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]kruple@bw.edu or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at [jefmille@bw.edu]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.
