WILMINGTON, Ohio – Senior two-time All-Ohio Athletic Conference guard Kevin Krakowiak (Valley City/Holy Name) scored a game-high 19 points, but the sixth-seeded Baldwin Wallace University men's basketball team lost to third-seeded Wilmington College, 64-58, in the second round of the 2014 Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament in the Fred Razik Arena.
BW ends its season at 14-13 overall. Wilmington is now 17-8 overall and advances to play at No.2-seeded Marietta College, 19-6 overall, on Thursday, February 27 at 7:30 p.m.
In addition to Krakowiak, BW also received 16 points from junior guard Jaron Crowe (Mentor). Krakowiak now has 1,383 career points and ended his career 15th on the Yellow Jacket all-time scoring list. Despite missing his second straight game due to a season-ending injury, senior three-time All-OAC forward Kyle Payne (Brunswick) completed his career with 1,541 career points to stand 10th on the all-time scoring list. Wilmington was led by junior guard R.J. Leppert and senior forward Malcolm Heard II with 18 points each.
In the first half, the Quakers grabbed an early, 4-0 lead at 17:55 when senior guard Klarke Ransome made a layup. Wilmington's lead grew to eight points on two separate occasions with the last at 11-3 at 16:37 when senior forward Ben Vonderhaar made a layup.
BW scored eight straight points, including six on two Krakowiak three-pointers to forge an 11-11 tie at 14:07. After BW gained a 14-11 lead on a triple by Crowe at 13:45, Leppert scored five straight markers for the Quakers and gave them the lead back at 16-14 at 11:00.
Wilmington built its advantage back to six on two occasions with the last at 28-22 at 4:17 when junior guard Dwight Johnson made a layup. BW outscored the Quakers 6-3 the remainder of the first stanza and trailed 31-28 at halftime.
BW opened the second half with five straight points to take a 33-31 lead at 19:01 when Crowe drove the lane, made a layup, was fouled and completed the three-point play by making his foul shot. After the Quakers tied it 33-33, the Jackets answered with four straight to take their largest lead thus far at 37-33 at 16:10 when Crowe made a layup.
Undaunted, Wilmington outscored the Yellow Jackets 16-4 to rebuild its largest lead of the contest at 49-41 at 9:24 when Heard canned his third triple of the night. BW had a 8-2 spurt to cut the lead to 51-49 at 6:10 when senior guard Grant Fairhurst (Ashland) canned a trey.
After the Quakers rebuilt their lead to 56-50 at 2:28 on a Heard trey, BW got a layup from junior forward Matt Dennis (Spring Hill. Fla./Nature Coast Technical) and another Fairhurst triple to make it 56-55 with 1:13 left. Wilmington made nine of 10 shots in the final 44 seconds to seal the victory and its move to the semifinal round.
The 2014 OAC Championship Game on Saturday, March 1 at the site of the highest remaining seeded team at 7:30 p.m. The winner of the OAC Tournament receives the OAC's automatic berth into the NCAA Division III National Tournament. You can view the entire OAC Tournamet 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.
