All five starters reached double figures as the Wilmington men's basketball team defeated Heidelberg, 71-64, Saturday in Ohio Athletic Conference action at the Fred Raizk Arena.
"Definitely an up and down performance today," said Wilmington head coach K.C. Hunt. "We guarded like crazy in the first half with a lot of urgency. We were just sloppy with the basketball all day, settled too much and really let them hang around."
Seniors Malcolm Heard II (Wilmington, OH/Wilmington), Ben Vonderhaar (Cincinnati, OH/Colerain), and Klarke Ransome (Richwood, OH/North Union) all scored 14 points to lead the Fightin' Quakers. The 14-points tied a season-high for Vonderhaar.
Heard added a team-high seven boards as Wilmington won the battle on the glass, 37-32.
Senior Taylor Wellman (Norwood, OH/Norwood) and junior R.J. Leppert (Liberty Township, OH/Lakota East) both tallied 10 points apiece. Leppert stuffed the stat sheet with six rebounds, a team-high four assists and a steal.
"I continue to believe that this team genuinely likes each other, and likes to share the ball," said Hunt. "It's a nice thing to see. We need to continue to get better at it. We have weapons at every position, and it's nice to have them all contribute."
Vonderhaar sparked a run in the first half with his defense initially, and then on the offensive end. With Wilmington trailing by one, he had back-to-back blocks on lay-ups, and scored eight of the first 10 points during WC's 16-0 run that helped give the team a 15-point bulge.
After holding the Student Princes to just 21 first-half points, the WC defense allowed Heidelberg to more than double it in the second half with 43 points.
Despite shooting 45.6 percent from the field and scoring 71 points, Hunt wasn't fully pleased with his team's performance.
"It's not good enough; too much individual today," said Hunt. "We have to keep the ball moving and get to our roots of 'one-mores' and easy plays."
Hunt pointed out that in the first meeting, Wilmington had 23 assists and they only had 13 assists in today meeting.
Wilmington (12-6 overall, 9-3 OAC) travels to Capital for an Ohio Athletic Conference game 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The Fightin' Quakers posted a 67-51 victory in the first meeting.