The Wilmington College men's basketball team concludes the first half of the Ohio Athletic Conference season with a home game against Otterbein 7 p.m. Wednesday.
NCAA SERIES: Wilmington leads the overall series, 18-14, and has won the last nine meetings.
THE LAST MEETING: For the Wilmington College men's basketball team, the playoffs essentially started on February 10th, and the Fightin' Quakers played with the energy and intensity needed to extend its season into the Ohio Athletic Conference tournament.
Wilmington scored the first 10 points of the game, and never looked back in posting the 87-54 win over Otterbein in OAC action at the Rike Center.
Wilmington blew the doors off the contest with a 25-7 run to end the first half and took a 29-point lead into the locker room. Otterbein never got any closer than 27 points in the second half, and the WC lead ballooned to as much as 38 in posting the victory.
Andrew Russell led three players in scoring figures with 17 points, while sophomore D.J. Iles added 16 points with two assists.
MEET THE CARDINALS: Despite shooting 45 percent from the field, the Cardinals allowed 45 second-half points in falling to Baldwin Wallace, 76-61, Saturday. Otterbein has now lost two straight games to fall to 3-5 in the Ohio Athletic Conference.
Senior Bryan Mackenzie leads the team with 15.3 points and 5.7 rebounds. He has reached double figures in all but two games this season, including a season-high 23 against John Jay in the second game of the season.
Junior Matt Hughes, who has led the team in scoring in two of the last three games, is second on the team with 11.6 points and 4.5 rebounds, and leads the team with 1.6 assists. Hughes had a team-high 17 points in the win over Baldwin Wallace, and had a career-high 28 points against Mount Union.
Junior Nick Nossaman is the team's leading three-point shooter, coming off the bench to make 22 three-pointers. He had an eight-game streak of making a three-pointer snapped in Saturday's loss to BW.
COLOR RUSH: Wilmington will be wearing its green road uniforms in a color rush event as both team are wearing their road uniforms. Wilmington fans are encouraged to wear green as well.
UNCLE DREW: Sophomore Andrew Russell, who came off the bench for the first time this season Saturday, is still tied for the team in scoring with 11.7 points.
After reaching double figures in each of the first five games, he has only scored at least 10 points in three of the last 10 games.
DOUBLE FIGURES: Wilmington enters the game with four players averaging more than 10 points. Junior Christian Jones and sophomore Andrew Russell are leading the team with 11.7 points.
Freshman Noah Chatman and junior Nathan Scott are tied for third on the team with 10.7 points.
EFFICIENT FROSH: Freshman Noah Chatman currently leads the Ohio Athletic Conference, making 67 percent of his attempts. Earlier this season, he set a Wilmington NCAA-era record with 14 made field goals. Chatman just missed the NCAA rankings eligibility of 5.0 FG made, converting 4.9 field goals.
GREAT SCOTT: Junior Nathan Scott is starting to show his scoring potential. Since scoring a career-high 18 points against Ohio Northern on December 7th, Scott is leading the team with 12.6 points in the 10-game span.
WE ROLL DEEP: Wilmington's rotation features 11 players that are averaging at least 10 minutes per game, and only one player - junior Christian Jones - averaging more than 25. In contrast, three players averaged more than 25 last season.
