Posted: Dec 04, 2021
WILMINGTON, Ohio – In typical fashion, the Wilmington College men's basketball team battled Baldwin Wallace to a close game in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) opener for the Fightin' Quakers at Fred Raizk Arena on Saturday. In this installment, the Yellow Jackets pulled away in the second half for a 78-66 victory.
Baldwin Wallace (BW) missed its first 10 triple tries, resulting in Wilmington building a double-digit lead on a Bilal Sow basket with 7:42 left to play in the first half, forcing a timeout from BW Head Coach Tom Heil with his team trailing 26-16. An Obed Achirem layup a minute later would give the hosts their largest lead of the game, but the Yellow Jackets would hit three triples in the final six minutes and cut the deficit to 35-30 at halftime.
The Yellow Jackets scored the first two baskets of the second half and would tie it 39-39, but an 8-2 run capped by a Noah Dado layup with 13:16 to play put the Quakers up 47-41. Two BW triples immediately followed, and neither team led by more than five points until under five minutes to play. A Bryce Bird triple pulled the hosts within 61-58, but Wilmington would get stuck at 58 points for over three minutes. During that time, BW nailed three triples to extent its lead to 70-58.
A Travis Mitchell layup stopped the run and a Jeffery Mansfield steal and layup followed, forcing a BW timeout with the visitors up 70-62 with 2:27 to play. The basket was also Mansfield's 1,000th career point, marking the 28th individual and first since Christian Jones (2015-18) to score 1,000 career points. Another Yellow Jacket three-pointer that followed sealed the win for BW as WC didn't get within single digits.
BW finished the game 28-of-66 (42.4 percent) from the field including 11-of-32 (34.4 percent) from three-point range after missing its first 10 attempts. Wilmington shot 35.4 percent (23-of-65) from the field and 29.4 percent (5-of-17) from distance. Both teams had 41 rebounds.
Individually, the Yellow Jacket duo of Drew Wennes and Jake Snyder combined for 51 points and took 38 of the team's shots. Wennes led all scorers with 29 points and 10 rebounds while Snyder added 22 points, seven rebounds, six assists and three steals. Ashton Price added 13 points off the bench and Christian Pfeiffer had six blocks. Mansfield finished with 18 points for WC in defeat to go along with five rebounds, five assists and three steals. Byrd added a career-high 10 points off the bench.
Wilmington (2-4, 0-1 OAC) heads to Ohio Northern University for a Wednesday evening game.
