In his final regular season game, senior Malcolm Heard II made sure the senior class would go out on top in front of the home fans.

Heard (Wilmington, OH/Wilmington) scored 26 points with 10 rebounds as the Wilmington College men's basketball team upset Mount Union Saturday, 84-77, in Ohio Athletic Conference action in Fred Raizk Arena at Hermann Court.

The inability to slow down the 6-5 Heard contributed getting into the bonus seven minutes into the second half, the WC was in the double bonus with eight minutes remaining in the game. Heard was 11-of-12 from the line in the second half, 14-of-15 overall as the team attempted 36 free throws. Wilmington shots 88.9 percent (32-of-36) from the charity stripe.

"I think the guys recognized we had them in the double bonus early in the second half," said Wilmington head coach K.C. Hunt. "As a group, we decided to attack inside; whether it was Malcolm or us just attacking the basket in the second half – it was the key to the second half."

The Fightin' Quakers converted 9-of-10 from the line down the stretch to secure the victory as WC scored 11 of the game's final 16 points.

Emotion from Senior Day had Wilmington threatening to put the game away early. The Fightin' Quakers scored the first eight points of the game, and continued to hold the advantage for the first four minutes. However, the Purple Raiders to the bench for a spark and got four consecutive triples to take a four-point lead.

"They are a quality team with a ton of depth," said Hunt. "What really kind of happened to us, we didn't rebound the basketball real well and a lot of those rebounds turned into kick out threes, and that is a bad recipe against a good team."

Both teams made runs in the half, and it was a jumper with 28 seconds remaining that allowed UMU to take the one-point halftime lead.

It was a battle of wills in the second half as they teams fought through 11 lead changes and eight ties, and it wasn't until the final run that Wilmington was able to secure the victory.

"The second half we played much harder on both ends of the floor, particularly on defense," said Hunt. "We stayed on our feet, didn't gamble, and the key was that we didn't give up offensive rebounds. The key was we only gave up three offensive boards versus the eight we allowed in the first half. Obviously, it was a great job in the second half by our players."

Wilmington starts its Ohio Athletic Conference tournament run 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Fightin' Quakers will host the winner of Monday's Capital/Baldwin Wallace game.