Three other players reach double figures

Quite frankly, senior R.J. Leppert has had enough.

So the forward took matters into his hands and helped the Wilmington College men's basketball snap a five-game losing streak as the Fightin' Quakers defeated Heidelberg, 83-81, Wednesday in Ohio Athletic Conference action at Fred Raizk Arena in Hermann Court.

Leppert (Liberty Township, OH/Lakota East) stuffed the stat sheet with a team-high 19 points, a career-high 15 rebounds, six assists, four steals and three blocks.

"He is just that dynamic of a guy," said Wilmington head coach K.C. Hunt. "When you look up every night at the stat sheet, he stuffs it – mostly good, sometimes bad. But his competitive spirit is off the charts. The guy wants to win, and he wants to win at everything he does. He just flat out willed us to this victory."

After committing eight turnovers in the first half against the Heidelberg press, WC trailed by three at the break much to the chagrin of Hunt. And he voiced his displeasure in the locker room.

"It was R-rated, I can tell you that," said Hunt. "I just challenged their manhood. I didn't think we showed up to play tonight. I still think we only showed up to play for seven minutes in the whole game. But a win is a win, and we needed one desperately. It's nice to get off the snide at home."

The motivational speech more than inspired the home team.

Three different players found the scorers sheet over the first two minutes of the second half as Wilmington went on a 12-0 run to open up its biggest lead of the game at nine points.

"We always talk about the first five minutes of the half, and it definitely won us the game tonight," said Hunt. "I thought getting the lead close to double digits was huge, and really put us in position to do what we do; and that is close out the game."

Heidelberg, while stunned, didn't allow the quick spurt to throw them off kilter. The Student Princes continued to chip away at their deficit, and a 9-1 run gave them a four-point lead with a little over eight minutes remaining.

The Fightin' Quakers countered the HC spurt by scoring 12 of the next 14 points. But the game of runs continued as Heidelberg scored six straight to pull even with 2:15 remaining. Wilmington converted eight of 11 from the foul line down the stretch, and locked down on the defensive end to record the win.

For Hunt, it was nice to see his team bear the fruits of their improved play.

"This team is growing," said Hunt. "The one thing I like to tell them, sometimes wins and losses don't show how much better we are getting, and we are getting better. We just have to keep working every day to improve."

Freshman Christian Jones (Hamilton, OH/Hamilton) added 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting and 4-of-4 from the free throw line. Sophomores Law Williams (Dayton, OH/Thurgood Marshall) and John Righter (Pataskala, OH/Licking Heights) added 11 points.

Wilmington (2-6 overall, 1-3 OAC) stays home 3 p.m. Saturday to face Baldwin Wallace.