BETHANY, W. VA. -- Junior forward Drew Sova (Chagrin Falls/Kenston) tallied his career-high 13 points, 11 rebounds and sophomore guard Matthew Dimitrijevs (Broadview Heights/Brecksville Broadview Heights) career-best 20 points led the Baldwin Wallace University men's basketball team to a non-conference victory over Bethany (W.Va.) College, inside the Hummel Field House and Nutting Gymnasium.
BW (7-4) was led offensively by Dimitrijevs, who scored his 20 points off 7-of-13 shooting from the floor, including 6-of-12 from three-point range. In addition, senior two-time All-Ohio Athletic Conference and Academic All-OAC point guard Jay Battle (Gahanna/ Lincoln) and junior forward Tyler Colombo (Strasburg/ Tuscarawas Central Catholic) reached double figures as well with 10 and 14 points, respectively.
Bethany jumped out to an early, 8-5 lead. BW's Academic All-OAC guard Michael Quiring (Brunswick) tied the game at eight with a trey at 15:38. The Bison would regain the lead with its own triple at 14:11 before BW grabbed its first lead at 14-13 on a three-pointer from Dimitrijevs at the 12:44 mark. The Bison responded with a 5-3 run to re-establish an 18-17 lead, but the Yellow Jackets quickly reclaimed the lead with a 7-0 run that was capped by another Dimitrijevs trey at 7:49, and carried the advantage into intermission at 41-27.
Three minutes into the second half, the Bison would break the scoring drought and decrease the BW lead to 41-29. The teams traded points for the next couple of minutes before BW took control of the game. Bethany wasn't able to threaten the lead as BW's stifling defense held the Bison to 33 percent from the field in the second half. The Yellow Jackets' biggest lead of the game was 29 points at 83-54 with 59 seconds left when junior forward Jake Elbin (Findlay) made a layup.
BW finished the game shooting 30-of-67 (45%) from the field and 15-of-34 (44%) from three-point range. The Jackets also controlled the paint with 49 boards and 28 paint points. The Yellow Jackets' bench also came up big and outscored Bethany backups, 46-23.
This game concludes the 2018 portion of the schedule and the Yellow Jackets will be back in action on Wednesday, January 2 when BW hosts and women's and men's doubleheader in the Ursprung Gymnasium inside of the Lou Higgins Center in Berea. The 19th-ranked Yellow Jacket women's basketball team (10-1 overall, 4-0 in the OAC) plays Marietta College at 5 p.m. and the men host Heidelberg University at 3 p.m.
