WILMINGTON, Ohio - The Wilmington College men's basketball team fell for just the second time on its home court this season as Baldwin Wallace University claimed a 74-71 victory in an Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Tournament quarterfinal played at Hermann Court on Tuesday evening.
The Fightin' Quakers, who had beaten the Yellow Jackets by a combined nine points in both regular season meetings, opened the game on a 14-2 capped by a triple from Will Patrick at the 15:11 mark forcing a time from BW Head Coach Tom Heil. The visitors pecked into their deficit and eventually took a 25-24 lead with 6:47 to play in the first half.
Neither team would lead by more than a basket for the remainder of the first half. An Emmanuel Opku offensive rebound and basket looked to give Wilmington a three-point edge after 20 minutes, but a Michael Quiring basket tied the game 37-37.
The first 12 minutes of the second half were played within an eight-point window as Wilmington led by as many as three (40-37) and BW by as many as five (61-56). A Jay Battle layup with 7:52 to play in regular forced a timeout from Wilmington Head Coach K.C. Hunt. The timeout proved effective as the Quakers rattled off an 11-2 run thanks a Patrick triple and multiple baskets from both Payton Smith and Andrew Russell. Trailing by two, BW scored the next six points to build a 71-67 lead with 2:24 to play.
DaeShawn Jackson got Wilmington back within two, but a Tyler Colombo old-fashioned, three-point play put BW back up five. Patrick scored on a step-back baseline jumper to pull the hosts within three (74-71), and a defensive stop that followed gave the Quakers the ball back with 11 seconds and a chance to send the game to overtime.
Wilmington got two potential game-tying triples off, but both missed target as BW escaped Hermann Court with the victory.
Both teams shot 41 percent from the field with Wilmington making three more shots. From beyond the three-point arc, both teams were nearly identical as the Yellow Jackets shot 5-of-21 (23.8 percent) compared to 6-of-24 (25.0 percent) for the Quakers. The visitors made up the difference at the free throw line (15-7).
Wilmington outrebounded BW 44-36, but were forced into 14 turnovers as the Yellow Jackets had 11 steals.
Individually, Patrick led all scorers with 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting while Andrew Russell notched a double-double (10 points and 10 rebounds) in his final collegiate game.
Battle led BW with 19 points while Luke Schaefer had 10 points, six rebounds and six steals.
Wilmington, which was picked ninth in the OAC preseason poll, concludes its 2018-19 season with a 17-8 overall record and a 13-5 mark in conference play. Both are best marks since the 2013-14 campaign.
